Le Phem Era

Le Phem Era was founded across the unceded Lands of the Bunurong Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Peoples of the Kulin Nation, and is currently based between Naarm and the Netherlands.

Le Phem Era is an interdisciplinary and anti-disciplinary practice run by Leitu Bonnici for self-initiated projects that critically examine notions of ephemera through experimental methods of archiving and publishing.

Le Phem Era researches through creative analysis, datafication, disruption, re-assemblage and speculation using democratic modes of production.

An exploration of hyper-personalisation through a series of bookshelves. Taking the customisation of an object to the point where it only works for one person or one specific purpose often leads to absurd but much more meaningful products.

The bookshelves were customised for particular books to differing degrees, relying on the physical attributes of the books in different ways. Some were tailored so specifically that they do not work without the books they were created to hold. The accompanying catalogue focused on the measurements of the books used and explained the research behind each bookshelf form.

Developed with teaching by Paul Fuog and Uriah Gray. Photography by Tobias Titz.

A bookshelf made up of pieces that connect books together to create structure. A close up of a connecting bookshelf piece and the books it is attached to. A see-saw style bookshelf where the combined weight of the books on either side balance each other. Two images of a bookshelf that holds books by pressure from both sides so that they are suspended. An experiemental bookshelf where the books are stacked on top of each other with their spines open. An inverse of the previous bookshelf where books are stacked on top of each other laid open All five hyper-personalised bookshelves placed in a group. A close up of tabs marking each book accompanying the series of bookshelves. Four catalogues with brown covers that read 'catalogue' on the front. One of the catalogues lays open. A spread from the accompanying catalogue depicting the measurements of the books used for one bookshelf. A spread from the accompanying catalogue depicting thumbnails of the books used for one bookshelf. A detail shot of a spread from the accompanying catalogue depicting the research behind two of the bookshelf forms.

A month long creative development residency at Testing Grounds used to research and experiment with the relationship between disposable and enduring materials.

Clothing items were created by combining different re-purposed materials (cotton, linen, plastic) with ephemeral receipts (thermal printed paper). They were attached to one another using various methods including secure stitching, loose decorative stitching, melting and masking tape. The participants who tested the items were left to decide what was temporary or removable, and what was permanent or adaptable.

Developed with mentorship from Debris Facility.

Three receipts against a black background depicting clothing life cycle research. Four receipts against a black background. One is particularly yellow and aged. Front and back view of a woman trying out an experimental vest / bag.
Thanks to Phuong Lam for testing this piece.
A detail shot of an experimental vest / bag hanging on display. Nine video stills of three people testing an experimental totebag.
Thanks to Georgia Townley, Jacquie Poon and Matthew Glico for testing this piece.
Long receipts containing research are weighed down by a brick on top of a grey metal plinth.
Creative Development Program showing installation detail. Photo courtesy of Testing Grounds.
People seated at the outdoor space at Testing Grounds in Southbank.
Creative Development Program showing, Testing Nights. Photo courtesy of Testing Grounds.

A two day residency at Testing Grounds that took place during in May, 2022 intending to bring together creatives from different backgrounds of screen media to write, produce and film a collaborative audio visual work over 48 hours. The aim of the residency was to develop relationships, enable skill sharing, workshop ideas and create something unique.

Participation alongside Andrew Stark, Michelle Myers, Oliver Moir, Rebecca Perich and Shan Dante.

A day-long residency at Tree Paper Gallery, based at The Pavilion during December, 2022.

The residency was used to research archival processes alongside explorative printing and collage. The content used was a growing archive of phone photos that have been taken over years, each photo consisting of ephemeral signage extracted from public urban environments.

In addition to the residency, workshops were attended for riso printing, paper making and screen printing using the riso machine. Paper was made from recycled cardboard as well as an experimentation in using fallen plant matter, made in collaboration with Sam Emery.

Many distorted, black and white phone photos of ephemeral signage are placed in a grid formation. A riso test print where the ink is patchy in blue and black featuring text of different sizes, patterns and symbols. The same riso test print where there are no patchy spots where ink is missing. A riso test print of the same design on brown paper. A riso test print of the same design on maroon paper. A close up of a riso print of waves with jagged outlines and a shadow, with text in them that reads 'taua is you and I, maua is me and someone...' and 'for sure, seki'. A close up of a riso print of an experimental font made up of dots that depict gradients in arch shapes. Two attempts of recycled cardboard paper. The left has more jagged edges and two holes in the middle. Two attempts of plant debris paper. The right is mostly intact but the left is smaller, an unusual shape and in bits. Against a black background are white letters in an ornate, pixel font that have been placed with varying success.

A residency at the Centre for Projection Art took place from 22 November, 2022 to 30 May, 2023.

The program was used to become projection literate. The opportunity was taken to experiment with ways to expand digital works beyond the boundaries of screens and into activations in three-dimensional space, as well as exploring ways to integrate projected imagery into traditionally non-digital works.

Developed with mentorship from Abeera Kamran.

Link to residency profile
Link to artists-in-residence group exhibition
Link to Gertrude Street Projection Festival website
Link to residency journal

Centre for Projection Art x West Space Gallery as studio. Photo by Priya Namana.
Centre for Projection Art x West Space Gallery as studio. Photo by Priya Namana.

The Quarry is an ongoing rehabilitation project and a site of former sandstone extraction, which was used for road base by logging companies, run by These Are The Projects We Do Together on the Land of the Gadubanud people in the Otway Ranges.

Camp Two of the inaugral Quarry Pedagogies ran 12–17 February, 2023. The invitation-only camp included transport, food and accommodation, and brought together participants from architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, visual art and carpentry. Centred around rehabilitation as a creative process, the program included workshops, talks, activities and collective discussions lead by presenters in the fields of geology, ecology, architecture, craft, visual art and more. Participants were also able to initiate projects that responded to the site and rehabilitation process.

Link to information about the site

A forest view with slender trees, clumps of ferns and dead blackberry branches lining the forest floor. A group of people stand beside a large pond in the middle of a quarry, with one person holding a net with a very long handle. Under an exposed, metal truss roof, and between two shipping containers, a bunch of people sit in luxurious camping chairs on a gravel floor. A presentation is projected onto partially transparent sheets with text that reads 'Beech Forest Quarry — Geology'. Under the cover of tarps on an ourdoor wooden deck, a bunch of people sit around long wooden tables, looking at the speaker standing on the far end.

The Tautai FALE-SHIP Residency Program supports ten Tagata Moana creative practitioners living in Aotearoa and abroad to develop new digital work from home. Artists-in-Residence share their practice over a two-week period, responding to global transformation through a localised lens.

In 2023, Tautai invited artists to create works inspired by the words of Epeli Hau’ofa in reaching out across ‘Our Sea of Islands’ and respond to navigation, wayfinding and meeting across oceans both physical and digital.

On residency from 25 September to 8 October, 2023.

Link to residency profile

Werkplaats Typografie is a two-year experimental graphic design masters program based in the Netherlands, centred on self-initiated projects and assignments with meetings, lectures, excursions, seminars, and readings geared towards self-accountable and independently motivated work and research.

Participant of the program from September, 2023 as part of Year 25. Attendance supported by a grant from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

Link to Werkplaats Typografie vitrine

Leitu Bonnici, 'A Tissue for your Issue' (for the Werkplaats Typografie End of Year show), 2025.

Le Phem Era had a stand at the African Art Book Fair in Dakar, Senegal running 16—19 May, 2024. The practice was presented as part of the panel Tracing the genealogies of the work alongside Bukola Oyebode-Westerhuis, George Mahashe and Seloua Luste Boulbine, moderated by Sara Mychkine.

Habitat is a permanent cult(r)ural settlement and collective workshop carrying participatory practices of living (and publishing) within and beyond the local scale. Located at Cà de Monti, Tredozio, Italy.

The time at Habitat was spent investigating the overlaps between publishing and habitable spaces. Experiments with repurposed and found materials referenced domestic spaces in relation to identity, geographical (dis)connection and the ongoing struggle for cultural reclamation for Indigenous Peoples.

Residing for five weeks across June and July, 2024.

Quarry Pedagogies Camp: B-roll is a site-specific impromptu projection installation created in response to time spent at The Quarry, on the Land of the Gadubanud people in the Otway Ranges, after a week of undertaking workshops, discussions and activities that centred site rehabilitation, ecologies, and collective processes.

The work explores anti-archival methods as well as a collectivised, place-based approach to filmmaking, by foraging videos from camp participants-cum-cinematographers and using site-specific production practices. Phone videos from the time at camp were gathered from participants and placed un-edited in response to the architecture of the communal bathhouse. The work was installed while campers were showering in, and brushing their teeth besides, the cubicles which acted as projection surfaces.

Quarry Pedagogies Camp: B-roll is a video projection artwork co-produced by Emily Simek and Leitu Bonnici in collaboration with the participants of Quarry Pedagogies Camp Two: Alexandre Faustino, Belinda Smole, Brahn Smillie, Emily Wong, Fiona Runjia Chen, Gabby Alfano, Georgia Frendo, Jen Lynch, Joy Zhou, Lana Nguyen, Laura Zammit, Lena Skipper, Nicola Papaioannou, Nicolas Guerra, Olivia Wright, Peter Grant, Quinru Hu, Sophie Adsett, Tenielle Clerke, Tess Nettlefold, and Thomas Heath.

The Quarry site and the Quarry Pedagogies program are run by These Are The Projects We Do Together. Documentation, technical support and projection equipment supplied by Ivan Mašić, co-director of Little Projector Company.

Four panels of phone footage are projected outside, side by side onto the side of a building at night. Someone stands in front of the projecting, blocking part of one of the four moving images. On the inside of the shower cubicles the projected images are diffused by the opaque surface of the walls.

Kefe o'e Europa is a series of woven paper works that speak to Indigenous resistance while being located in the colonial centres of Europe.

More coming soon.

Kefe o‘e Siamani  is a poster series that challenges German perception of history and German hypocrisy given the country’s historical and current role in the persecution of Indigenous Peoples. The poster has been designed to contain meaning that can only be understood by a particular community affected by German colonisation. Afai e te iloa, e te iloa.

Copies of Kefe o‘e Siamani  were available to purchase at the African Art Book Fair 2024 in Dakar, Senegal and at a book fair in Leipzig, Germany.

A version of Kefe o’e Siamani  was shown at the Nieuwe Instituut as part of the exhibition Forms of (ex-)Change.

The exhibition was originally supposed to take place in Leipzig, but had to moved to the Nieuwe Institute in Rotterdam ‘due to the current political and cultural climate in Germany’. In response to the original location, the poster uses language(s) to call attention to the hypocrisies of a colonial cunt-ry (as a descendant of people colonised by Germany).

Curated by Maureen Mooren and Armand Mevis, Forms of (ex-)Change invites graphic designers from the Netherlands and Germany to explore change in relation to themes of personal importance.

Showing at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the Netherlands from 17 May to 6 October, 2024.

Link to exhibition page

Photo by Aad Hoogendoorn courtesy of the Nieuwe Instituut.

Home Patterns is a body of work investigating the complexities of a perpetually diasporic and multi-ancestral notion of home. Patterns are referenced both in terms of habitual rituals, as well as the repetition of symbols used as signifiers of culture and identity.

Iterations of this body of work shown at Habitat (4 July until September, 2024) and Palazzo Bronzo (16 May to 6 June, 2025).

Untitled mixed media on paper work as part of 'Home Patterns' exhibition at Habitat.
'Diasporic Musings' (video still) shown as part of a group show at Palazzo Bronzo.

Home Patterns is an exhibition investigating the complexities of a diasporic, multi-ancestral notion of home formed by generational migration. The material explorations reflect on domestic spaces in relation to struggles with identity, connection and safety. Tensions are navigated between opportunities in new environments and the suppression of parts of oneself in order to exist in unfamiliar and culturally hostile surroundings. Works were intuitively composed using textural and environmental encounters during a stay at Habitat, as well as previously collected domestic packaging waste. Patterns are referenced in terms of habitual rituals, as well as the repetition of symbols used as signifiers of culture and identity.

Showing at Habitat in Tredozio, Italy from 4 July until September, 2024.

Link to exhibition information (Habitare event page)

The single channel video work, titled ‘Diasporic Musings’, speaks directly to the experience of belonging to the Italian diaspora. Depicted phrases demonstrate cultural estrangement as well as stating insights that are enabled by distance and external knowledges. The compositions respond to found patterns on surrounding materials and in nature (in Italy, The Netherlands and in Sāmoa), using them as a base to depict thoughts and questions in English. These are also interspersed with single words in Sāmoan which are drawn using domestic packaging waste collected in Europe.

Showing from 16 May to 6 June, 2025 as part a group exhibition at Palazzo Bronzo in Genova, Italy.

not an 'ie tōga is a work exhibited in a group exhibition called The Assembly at R Gallery in Sliema, Malta.

The 'ie tōga, or Sāmoan fine mat, is a precious item exchanged at special occasions or worn as a ceremonial garment. It is usually made with treated and intricately woven pandanus leaves, and then decorated with parakeet feathers. The work not an 'ie tōga is a purposely poor replication of an 'ie tōga. It mimicks the biege tones and red decoration at the ends of the mat, created instead with recycled cardboard food packaging bought in the Netherlands. The contrast between a real ‘ie tōga and this reproduction—precious versus disposable, enduring versus ephemeral, natural versus synthetic—reveals differences in philosophies regarding value placed on production and the life span of materials.

The Assembly exhibited at R Gallery from 29 November to 29 December, 2024. Curated by Charlie Cauchi. Project managed by Tamara Burr. R Gallery produced by Mark Sullivan and Kathrine Maj. Documentation by Kim Sammut.

‘Afa‘afakasi is an ongoing publication project initiated as motivation to learn gagana Sāmoa (Sāmoan language), which inevitably also encompasses connection to culture, people, lands and waters. The series of experimental publications are presented through a variety of creative outputs that promote visibility and reclamation.

There are currently two volumes. Lomiga Tasi: Folasaga Lona Lua translates to ‘Issue One: Second Introduction’. Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana translates to ‘Issue Two: Over the Ocean/Blue’.

A play on the term ‘afakasi (half Sāmoan, derived from the colonial term ‘half-caste’), ‘Afa‘afakasi means half of a half Sāmoan. This new term was created to raise questions around racial classifications and connection to, or disconnection from, heritage. This series of publications is led by someone whose grandpa was born and raised in Sāmoa, but is also of European ancestry and mostly removed from Sāmoan culture. Knowledge of Sāmoa has been gained through interactions with ‘āiga (family), learning from other Sāmoans, visiting Sāmoa and through research.

This work forms part of ongoing critical (and playful) research on the structure and function of publications, their ‘succinct communication’, implied ‘objectivity’ and ‘perfected conventions’. Rather than observing an organised system of language learning, the project explores how volumes can be interpreted in a variety of forms that are more collaborative and immersive, where equal value is placed on the process of learning as to the presentation of outcomes.

An old photo of a child reaching up towards a bunch of coconuts in Samoa. An old photo of a toddler sitting in the lap of her grandfather.

Lomiga Tasi: Folasaga Lona Lua, translating to ‘Issue One: Second Introduction’, is a basic introduction to language and culture. The webpage also playfully employs collaboration and digital filters to investigate feelings of cultural disconnection, as well as the lack of representation on the web (and elsewhere).

Made alongside a series of discussions and featuring collaborations with Denise Roberts, Moira Roberts and Tacy Fatu, who were born in Samoa but live on Kombumerri Country (the Gold Coast) and in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).

Link to online publication
Link to screen reader-friendly version

Typographic arrangements illustrate Samoan pronunciation. Speech bubbles with Samoan greetings. A screenshot of four people on zoom.

Rainy day install at Twosixty of posters promoting Vaiaso o le Gagana Sāmoa (Sāmoan Language Week) and the first issue of ‘Afa‘afakasi, a free online publication called Lomiga Tasi: Folasaga Lona Lua.

Developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts and Moira Roberts. Exhibited at Twosixty on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia). Installation assistance by Oliver Moir. Photography by Emma Byrnes.

A brush sweeping away glue from a poster installed on the ground promoting Samoan Language Week. A poster being installed on the ground by two people. A poster being installed on the ground depicting Samoan pronunciation concrete poetry. A poster being installed on the ground depicting basic Samoan phrases. A poster installed on the ground promoting Samoan Language Week depicting colours in Samoan. A woman carries a large poster filled with colourful emojis representing Samoa. One person holds a poster in place on the ground while the other person sweeps glue over it. An installed poster depicting the Samoan alphabet. Two people placing installing a poster on the ground while smiling. An installed poster depicting ways to say hello and goodbye in Samoan. Two people placing installing a poster on the ground amongst other installed posters. A wet poster being partially scrunched by a hand.

Lomiga Tasi: Folasaga Lona Lua ... Ata Tifaga ... Sologa, translating to ‘Issue One: Second Introduction ... Film ... In Progress’, is an in development showing and an experimentation with projection that extends upon the making of the webpage for Lomiga Tasi: Folasaga Lona Lua. It is an unconventional hybrid of documentary and publication featuring video calls across Naarm (Melbourne), Kombumerri Country (the Gold Coast) and Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) overlapped with other collaboratively made digital works.

Developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts and Moira Roberts. Installation developed with support from the Centre for Projection Art through their Artist-in-Residence program and exhibited as part of the group show Skylight at the Mission to Seafarers on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia) 20–30 January, 2023. Photography by Anatol Pitt.

Link to exhibition page

A still of four people talking over a video call overlaid with brightly coloured text denoting the title, the participants and their location, the date, the time, and audio captions. An overview of an installation in a large, empty, dark room. One wall is mostly covered in blue with Zoom footage, a phone video, writing and sketches over the top and the panels of the door are sectioned by colours and typography. The fireplace on the perpendicular wall is multicoloured and partially framing video captions on the wall. A close up of the coloured panels of the door with text that reads 'tau mālūlū', '8:01pm', '15 May', and '2022'. On the perpendicular wall is a video caption that spirals inward and is yellow with a blue glow, intersecting with the fractured word 'tālofa' in red.

Lomiga Tasi: Folasaga Lona Lua ... Ata Tifaga is an audiovisual, multi-channel projection work about reconnecting to language, culture and family. This exhibition both documents the making of Lomiga Tasi: Folasaga Lona Lua and is a further extension of the project.

Developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts and Moira Roberts.

Shown at RM Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand), 13 September to 7 October, 2023. Photography by Ardit Hoxha.

Link to text response by Ashleigh Taupaki
Link to video response by Ashleigh Taupaki

Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana, translating to ‘Issue Two: Over the Ocean/Blue’, uses digital interpretations of the ocean as a backdrop to ponder space, distance, memory and the future in relation to gagana Sāmoa and fa‘asāmoa. This issue of ‘Afa‘afakasi  is a representation of the link that exists between family members across waters and geographies despite physical distance from each other, and from Sāmoa.

The word ‘sami’ is used to describe the sea or ocean in gagana Sāmoa, but the word ‘moana’ can also be used and is shared as the word for ocean across multiple Nations of Moana Oceania. It can also means the colour blue in gagana Sāmoa, as in ‘lanumoana’. In the context of the internet, blue is the default colour used to denote connection to other destinations in the form of hyperlinks. Lomiga Lua uses the colour blue and digital reproductions of the ocean as the context for a chorus of words, thoughts and conversations.

This work combines digitally constructed interpretations of the ocean with text formed through familial connection, memory and shared interactions by ‘āiga (family) in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), on Kombumerri Country (the Gold Coast) and in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton). The artificial backgrounds were created in Naarm using a mixture of illustration, code, three dimensional digital modelling and reconstructed footage taken in Sāmoa.

Developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts, Moira Roberts and Numiamalepule Adrian Tuitama.

Iterations of this publication volume have shown at Testing Grounds Public Art Park for Melbourne Fringe Festival (6–23 October, 2022), at the West Space Window (27 May to 18 June, 2023) and at Incinerator Gallery (from 21 July to 24 September, 2023), as well as an event at Collingwood Yards (30 May, 2023).

'Lomiga Lua: i Luga 'o le Moana' exhibition at Incinerator Gallery. Photography by Gianna Rizzo.
Two rows of four blue, two-tone stills from a video of the deconstruction of an umu. A Sāmoan man in a beanie, jumper, jeans and boots takes off layers of burlap sacks which release a lot of steam, followed by a layer of baking paper, and then rocks are removed from the top of foil wrapped food.
‘Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana ... Fa'amanatuina ‘o le Gagana’ event identity graphic featuring Peter Lemalu trialling 'Malo Lelei', an umu run as an artwork.
'Malo Lelei', an interactive ‘ie lavalava mark making activity, run in collaboration with Peter Lemalu as part of the event ‘Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana ... Fa'amanatuina ‘o le Gagana’. Photography by Gracie Sietu.
'Lomiga Lua: i Luga 'o le Moana' showing in the West Space Window as part of the event ‘Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana ... Fa'amanatuina ‘o le Gagana’. Photography by Gracie Sietu.
Over a dark blue background covered in rows of wave emojis, white text reads: ocean. sami/moana. we were known to be great navigators of the ocean. the ocean is our... highway. supermarket. playground. weakness. life. the ocean... gives us courage. connects and separates us from other islands. is where it all started.
'Lomiga Lua: i Luga 'o le Moana' video still from the showing at Testing Grounds as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2022

The first iteration of Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana is a moving image work installed at Testing Grounds Public Art Park for Melbourne Fringe Festival, running 6–23 October, 2022. Public Art Park consists of a site-wide program supporting the development of works specifically developed for and in relation to the public realm.

Developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts, Moira Roberts and Numiamalepule Adrian Tuitama. Exhibited at Testing Grounds on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia).

Link to event website

Over a dark blue background covered in rows of wave emojis, white text reads: ocean. sami/moana. we were known to be great navigators of the ocean. the ocean is our... highway. supermarket. playground. weakness. life. the ocean... gives us courage. connects and separates us from other islands. is where it all started. On a dark blue background are white, roughly drawn shapes of different sizes resembling different interpretations of waves. On the wave in the top-left, blue text reads: navigating through the Oceans of present past and future... A bright blue background is broken up in one section by a mouse arrow, revealings small parts of a darker blue beneath. Over the top white text, set in a cascading zigzag depicts a long personal message. Against a blue background of repeating rows of giant, geometric waves white text reads: tātou. we, us all. On the side of a shipping container painted an olive green, large white banners depict the details of Public Art Park.
Public Art Park opening event. Photo courtesy of Testing Grounds.

The second iteration of Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana is a moving image installation developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts, Moira Roberts and Numiamalepule Adrian Tuitama.

Exhibited at the West Space Window on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia), 27 May to 2 July, 2023. Photography by Gracie Sietu and Janelle Low.

Link to exhibition page

'Lomiga Lua: i Luga 'o le Moana' showing in the West Space Window as part of the event ‘Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana ... Fa'amanatuina ‘o le Gagana’. Photography by Gracie Sietu.
Photography by Janelle Low, courtesy of West Space.

We think we know who we are, but we’re not sure. We also don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re still here.

Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana ... Fa'amanatuina ‘o le Gagana, translating to ‘Issue Two: Over the Ocean/Blue … Language Celebration’, is a celebration of Vaiaso o le Gagana Sāmoa (Sāmoan Language Week) that took place on Tuesday 30 May, 2023 at Yálla-birr-ang, Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country.

Through food and art, we hoped to cultivate a welcoming and community-led environment for people with Sāmoan ancestry to come together and celebrate language. By providing a space for the exploration of collective and individual Sāmoan identities, we aim to promote reclamation of pre-colonial ways of knowing while allowing for diasporic interpretations of culture.

The event featured an array of artworks and activities by Sāmoan practitioners based in Naarm and beyond. Included were moving image works by FAFSWAG, Louisa Afoa, Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt and Natasha Matila-Smith, as well as an umu, ‘Malo Lelei’, run by Peter Lemalu, and collective ‘ie lavalava mark making.

The event took place on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia) and was presented by Le Phem Era (Leitu Bonnici), in collaboration with artist Peter Lemalu and with support from West Space, Centre for Projection Art, The Social Studio, Hope Street Radio, Composite Moving Image and Collingwood Yards. Event support by Anthea Bonnici, Cassandra Lemalu, Emily Simek, Fiona Chen, Joy Zhou, Lena Skipper and Paul Lemalu. Photography by Gracie Sietu. Risograph printing by Tree Paper Gallery.

Link to event roomsheet
Link to Composite Moving Image event page

Two rows of four blue, two-tone stills from a video of the deconstruction of an umu. A Sāmoan man in a beanie, jumper, jeans and boots takes off layers of burlap sacks which release a lot of steam, followed by a layer of baking paper, and then rocks are removed from the top of foil wrapped food.
Peter Lemalu, 'Malo Lelei', 2023. Graphic design by Leitu Bonnici.
Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt, ‘Aue My Endless Love’, 2022. Multichannel video with sound, 10 minutes 14 seconds.
Natasha Matila-Smith, ‘7 Minutes in Heaven’, 2021. Moving image, 7 minutes.
FAFSWAG, ‘Tulouna Le Lagi’, 2022. Moving image, animation, 5 minutes. Artist: Pati Tyrell, animation: Tanu Gago, writer: Pati Tyrell, music and editing: Pati Tyrell, voice over: Pati Tyrell. Originally commissioned by CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand.
Louisa Afoa, ‘Pink Flamingo II, A Pool is not the Ocean’, 2017. Moving image, 3 minutes 56 seconds.
Projection: Louisa Afoa, ‘Pink Flamingo II, A Pool is not the Ocean’, 2017. Moving image, 3 minutes 56 seconds.
Peter Lemalu, 'Malo Lelei', 2023. With assistance from Paul Lemalu.
Leitu Bonnici, Peter Lemalu and participants, 'Afai e te iloa, e te iloa', 2023.
Impromptu siva performance by Sia Tamausu.
Projection: Natasha Matila-Smith, ‘7 Minutes in Heaven’, 2021. Moving image, 7 minutes.
Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt, ‘Aue My Endless Love’, 2022. Multichannel video with sound, 10 minutes 14 seconds.
FAFSWAG, ‘Tulouna Le Lagi’, 2022. Moving image, animation, 5 minutes. Artist: Pati Tyrell, animation: Tanu Gago, writer: Pati Tyrell, music and editing: Pati Tyrell, voice over: Pati Tyrell. Originally commissioned by CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand.
Leitu Bonnici in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts, Moira Roberts and Numiamalepule Adrian Tuitama, 'Lomiga Lua: i Luga 'o le Moana', 2023.

The fourth iteration of Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana is an installation that takes the form of an enlarged and expanded publication. Included is an array of prints, moving image works and an audio work. Acting as both a resource and learning process, the work aims to provide language visibility without formality. Instead, the focus is on humour, play and organic interaction.

Developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts, Moira Roberts and Numiamalepule Adrian Tuitama. Showing at Incinerator Gallery from 21 July to 24 September, 2023.

Exhibited on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia). Risograph printing by Tree Paper Gallery. Photography by Gianna Rizzo courtesy of Incinerator Gallery.

Link to exhibition page

Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana screened 25–27 August, 2023 on the Federation Square Big Screen as part of the Gertrude Street Projection Festival offsite program.

Developed in collaboration with Alitasi Fatu, Denise Roberts, Moira Roberts and Numiamalepule Adrian Tuitama. Shown on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia).

Tusi Solo Malie is an online gagana Sāmoa collaborative poetry workshop that was held on Tuesday 29 August 6:45–8pm.

‘Lomiga’ can mean ‘edition’ or ‘massage’, ‘solo’ can mean ‘poetry’ or ‘towel’, and there are many other Sāmoan words with multiple meanings depending on the context or the way in which they are expressed. Together participants will collaborate on humorous poetry using Sāmoan homonyms—words that have more than one meaning. All levels of gagana are welcomed in this exchange of language learning. This workshop is a safe space for Sāmoan self-expression, inclusive of fa’afafine, fa’atane and all other MVPFAFF+ (LGBTQIA+) identifying community.

The workshop was run in collaboration with Anae Micah Tuitama-Roberts, Denise Roberts, Katie Rasch, Moira Roberts, Peter Lemalu, Talia Smith, as well as Numiamalepule Adrian Tuitama who couldn’t join the call but who also made poetry in parallel.

Tusi Solo Malie was supported by Incinerator Gallery as part of the exhibition Lomiga Lua: i Luga ‘o le Moana.

Lomiga Tolu: Gagana Le Tusia Ae Malamalama, translating to ‘Issue Three: Language Not Written But Understood’, is a film currently in development.

The short film will be an experimental hybrid of documentary and narrative. It will form a poetic talanoa, keeping to the spontaneous way conversation and interpersonal exchange unfolds.

Commissioned by COUSIN Collective as a part of Cycle III.

Link to COUSIN Collective profile

Anchored in a self-aware challenge to simplified narratives of civilisational progression that pervade western understandings of the written word, Letters at Play draws from our formative introductions to letters and punctuation in the classroom and on the playground to expand our understanding of what it is that letters are. What becomes possible when we see letterforms as not just individual pieces of the words we use to comprehend the world but as objects and sources of meaning in their own right? The poetic captions in this piece take their cues from schoolyard rhymes, such as those found in clapping games and jump rope, as well as mnemonic devices like the alphabet song and ‘I before E except after C’ that are used to bring us into the rules of English.

Created in collaboration with Jamali Bowden. Shown on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Land (Melbourne, Australia) on the corner of Gertrude Street and Charcoal Lane, and at Bunjil Place, as part of Gertrude Street Projection Festival from 26 July to 6 August, 2023.

Link to festival website
Link to Bunjil Place offsite exhibition page

Reproduction: Valuing, Growing & Retaining Pacific Leaders & Teachers is an summarised reproduction of the research paper Valuing, Growing and Retaining Pacific Leaders and Teachers by Violet Highley, contributed to the exhibition Open Source II. Constrained to a single A4 page, the focus was on highlighting the perceived key concepts of the original text.

Violet Highley (Sāmoan, Pākehā) was born, raised and currently resides in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand). She has been an educator for over 35 years and has focused on Special Education in the last 10 years. A particular interest in Pacific Educational Leadership has led her to start a doctorate in this area.

Open Source II, hosted by Second Place, explores ways of working around and beyond institutional agendas in collective creative practice. The exhibition focuses on the idea of mutual aid as shared ways of working and collective spaces are increasingly difficult to access and achieve. It aims to draw together the individuals and collectives that, despite (or because of) increasingly scarce resources and precarious conditions, are emerging to share community, critical discussions and a joyful version of design practice.

Created in collaboration with Violet Highley and exhibited as part of the Open Source II exhibition and online exhibition.

Link to online exhibiton

Indigenous Autonomy and Latin Characters is a body of research in progress that advocates for Indigenous self-determination in dominant systems of written communication. Conventional typographic histories acknowledge European Enlightenment origins with deference, without acknowledging its inseparable ties to imperialism and the ongoing repercussions for the global majority. The reverence for the written word and the subconscious effects of typography contribute to cultural erasure and subordination, especially for the many Indigenous languages that have had Latin characters imposed through colonisation.

This project comprises critical writing alongside the creation of typefaces and artworks. Included is the analysis, revival and interpretation of designs by Sāmoan-born type designer Joseph Churchward due to the proliferation and recognition of his designs, as well as a familial connection. There is also a collaborative project with artist Peter Lemalu. Examining the cultural, social and political conditions of type design, alternative approaches that centre Indigenous autonomy are speculated through a Sāmoan diasporic lens.

Research in progress was presented as part of the Storyweaving with Oceanic Sisters panel that is a part of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) conference, 2024.

The Storyweaving with Oceanic Sisters panel took place on 27 November, 2024 as part of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) conference. The theme for 2024 is 'Past, Present, Possible futures'.

The panel included Dorell Ben, Eva Cruz, Randizia Crisotomo, Leitu Bonnici and Teulia Hughes.

An Oceanic cultural praxis holistically encompasses the multitudes of Indigenous knowledge systems, embodied through Indigenous methodologies, grounded in Indigenous ontologies, and is nurtured by Indigenous epistemologies. This panel seeks conversations between Oceanic sisters and their cultural praxis as an exploration of ancestral pathways to understand our present and navigate our futures.

Through this Oceanic-centric methodology of talanoa, the sisterly spaces in which women position themselves fosters an emancipation from a colonial cage. This panel aspires to weave our sovereignties through conversation, fostering healing and promoting a liberating future that embraces the diverse visions of a matrilineal Oceania.

Link to online event
Link to event program

While letterspace celebrates type and its creative possibilities, we also strive to engage critically with its histories and present-day implications. Typography reflects and reinforces cultural narratives, power structures, and systems of dominance. That’s why we’re especially excited to welcome Leitu Bonnici, who will be giving a lecture that interrogates the pervasive dominance of the Latin alphabet and the Western ideologies embedded within it.

Leitu’s talk will offer a powerful critique of typographic hegemony while also presenting her own work, which challenges these structures through experimental, decolonial approaches to type design. She will also give us a glimpse into the legacy of her grand uncle, Joseph Churchward, a prolific Sāmoan type designer whose influence was pivotal in her own journey into the world of typography.

Text above provided by Letterspace Amsterdam.

Link to event

Flyer by Benjamin McMillan courtesy of Letterspace Amsterdam.

‘(Non-Institutional) Correspondence’ presents a series of posters created with 35 collaborators, marked by exchanges of learning and support. The posters are accompanied by a section of the transcription from the time of collaboration.

The entire project leans into intuition, spontaneity, experimentation and informality. The posters do not intend to efficiently state direct messages, they hint at knowledges, experiences and relations that are impossible to capture within conventional graphic design layouts. There is an explorative approach to what would otherwise be a client-designer relationship. Poster content was created during a single collaboration session, to reduce labour on the part of the collaborator, and was informed by a variety of discussions and playful making. The collaborators varied greatly in terms of previous creative experience—from exhibiting in renowned international institutions to self identified ‘non-creative people’. Previous experience, study and work are purposely not identified to decentre value attributed by institutions.

Created in collaboration with Denise Tuitama-Robert, Eddie Choo Wen Yi, Majed Fayad, Jacqueline Poon, Tahlia Palmer, Dorell Ben, Shaun Naufahu, Chris Payne, Hannah Davis-Gray, Leo Chircop, Joy Zhou, Dan Castelletti Selvaggi, Jamali Bowden, Ana Raquel Machava, Giulia Coluccello, Kaye Simonson, Moira Tuitama-Roberts, Xingyun Shen, Emily Simek, Kasper Quaink, Dicky Takndare, Peter Lemalu, Lilah Benetti, Lena Skipper, Rebekah Stowers, Alexander Tanazefti, Ehab As’sadi, Anthea Bonnici, Jordaan Tuitama, Ning Hong, Cyrus Raitava Kumar, Tamar Reisyan, Jeftha Pattikawa, Albert Refiti, and Jacopo Lega.

TW@WT (Time Wasting at Werkplaats Typografie) is a presentation of 36 ‘posters’ created with 36 collaborators. Shaped by personal relationships, each collaboration was informed by a variety of discussions and playful making. The project showcases the value of education and support outside of institutional spaces where harm is enabled and knowledges are limited.

The unfinished publication was presented as fragments of large scale posters to a playlist of songs suggested by people from home. It was then further activated by friends at the opening through sticking, dancing and basketball.

Exhibited 10 April, 2025 at The BOX, Werkplaats Typografie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Text support provided by Xingyun Shen and exhibition poster created in collaboration with external critic Bart De Baets.

The exhibition was deemed as insufficient for assessment and so was re-presented in a different form as TW@WT, T2 on 3 July, 2025 at The BOX, Arnhem, the Netherlands.

‘TW@WT (Time Wasting at Werkplaats Typografie)’ exhibition in Amsterdam.
‘TW@WT (Time Wasting at Werkplaats Typografie)’ exhibition in Amsterdam.
‘TW@WT, T2’ exhibition in Arnhem.
Photography by Giulia Coluccello featuring Kasper Quaink and Xingyun Shen.

Information coming soon.

Maluku x Sāmoa solidarity scarf in collaboration with Jeftha Pattikawa. More information coming soon.