Taja Vaetoru

Born and raised in one of the worlds most remote inhabited islands –  Manihiki. Having both Cook Islands and Samoan roots Taja navigates the profound interplay between absence and presence, drawing deeply from their Polynesian heritage. Their work is a personal exploration of loss, shaped by the emotional landscape left in the wake of their father’s death. It reflects the duality of grief and hope, illustrating how what is lost can illuminate the enduring connections we have with culture and ancestry.

Taja is inspired by the legacy of their ancestors—great voyagers who read the currents and navigated by the stars. These stories, intertwined with their own, inform their creative process, guiding their hand as they make marks that started with them, handed down generation to generation, now meet the tip of their pencil, stroke of their brush and cadence of their words. Each a continuation of these narratives, a testament to the power of storytelling that flows through their lineage.