Aired on Radio 04/09/2025: #IslandTime talanoa 

Fanau, Fānau: Moana, Fonua by Matagi Jessop Vilitama & Christyl Matagi opens this September. The third in a four-part series marking 50 years of Niue’s Pule Fakamotu, this exhibition journeys through grief, healing, and reconnection.

Date: Saturday 13th September 2025
Time: 1pm - 5pm 
Venue: Centre for Pacific Languages, Level 3, Manukau Mall, Auckland

ARTIST PROFILES:Matagi Jessop Vilitama realised his artistic gifts growing up in Kofekofe primary school, Mutalau, Niue Island. He loved art and often inspired when his peers and teachers would compliment his drawings. In Niue high school and later in Nelson College, Matagi took art as his main subject to gain his SC, UE and Bursary.   He managed to attain a Niue Government scholarship and pursued a diploma in graphic design majoring in ‘Visual Communication Design’ at the Wellington School of Design.  After graduation he spent a year as a freelance graphic designer in Auckland before returning and worked for a few years for the Government of Niue based at the department of Education. 

After marrying and having his daughter Christyl, Matagi then took a dramatic turn in his life, he responded to a call to Church ministry. After a year of training  as a theological student in Niue, he attended Otago University studied and achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Theology. 

He was called and ministered at the Avatele village for 12 years before pursuing his PhD in Ecclesiology at Charles Sturt University, Australia.  Even as a Minister for many years, Matagi continued to dabble in art and design. He’s designed logos and corporate identities but not so much paintings. Matagi has always felt the yearning towards art and after completing his PhD he wanted to pick up the paint brush and paint again.  It wasn’t until the tragic death of his son Tofi, that he and daughter Christyl collaborated to do something about it. Niue’s 50th year of Pule Fakamotu gave them a platform to pursue this sense of their artistic calling.

ARTIST PROFILES: Christyl Matagi-Vilitama is a self-taught Niuean artist and cultural storyteller whose work bridges ancestral tradition with modern creative expression. Through her brand Niueanna: The Ancestral Canvas, Christyl creates powerful pieces that weave together traditional motifs, personal stories, and the collective memory of her people. Her art is not just visual, it is a journey of reconnection, healing, and identity.