What the kufani knows, the kufani weaves looks to reflect the generational practice of weaving within Pasifika communities. To “weave in a strange land”(Thode-Arora), brought cultural and community strength to the first wave of Niuean migrants in New Zealand. Weaving restored space for Niuean workers to reflect on their new home and its foreign, bustling ways of living.

Today, to New Zealand-born weaver Jessie Atutolu-Tulisi (Niue, Tonga and Samoa), weaving offers a moment of intentionally slowing down. Taught by family and her community, Atutolu-Tulisi acknowledges the role of weaving as a restoration of communal space as well as an honouring to the individual. Not as a means to disregard generational sacrifices but rather, to reject the idolising of their labour.

Through traditional and contemporary shared Pacific weaving techniques, Atutolu-Tulisi interworks various materials, such as ti leaf, rope and beads as a means of self-preservation. By allowing oneself to sit in the present repeated motions of braiding and interlocking, the kufani and its web become symbols of consciousness. Conscious of woven stories and migrant dreams. Conscious of migrant grandparents and the fullness of their lives.

What the kufani knows, the kufani weaves.
And what the kufani weaves for Atutolu-Tulisi, is a manifestation of her reality.