MAFANA | 5-11 July 2025 - George Funaki + Jolie Le Fuevre

MAFANA is a space for warmth—the kind that exists between Pasifika people. Through photography and moving image, the exhibition gently explores how care, service, and shared memories can connect Pasifika communities. 

Inspired by lukuluku—a Tongan way of gathering that often happens during times of hardship. MAFANA looks at how we come together, support one another, and give back. It speaks to the ways we stay connected, both seen and unseen—through duty, presence, and giving. 

This series includes twenty portraits. Ten works are exhibited in the gallery; the other ten are gifted to the families. Through this exchange, MAFANA becomes more than just an exhibition—it becomes a shared practice, a memory, and a way of showing warmth. 

JOLIE LE FEUVRE
Jolie Le Feuvre is an analogue-based photographer of French-Filipino heritage, based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her practice is rooted in observation and intimacy, often exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the emotional landscapes of everyday life. Working predominantly with film, Jolie seeks to document the quiet strength of her subjects and the spaces they inhabit—those places where vulnerability and truth are able to surface without fear. 

GEORGE FUNAKI
George Funaki, a queer-Pacific interdisciplinary arts practitioner based in Tamaki Makaurau. Funaki is a New Zealand-born Tongan artist whose practice navigates the intersections of identity, space, culture, and community. His work draws from the vā - a relational framework that emphasises the nurturing of space between Pacific people, objects, and environments. Rooted in his experiences as a leitī, George explores Pacific and queer identities with a focus on holding space for their complexities rather than resolving them.