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|| The Forever Stories ||

This week on Episode 108 of the #ReadswithRosaPodcast I sit down for a talanoa with Artist and Graphic Designer, Linda Vaโ€™aelua. Her work looks closely at her Samoan and Scottish lineage, as well as her position as a Tagata Moana artist within the Samoan diaspora in Aotearoa. Linda has more than 20 years of experience as a graphic designer, was the first Pasifika art director for NZ Womenโ€™s Weekly, and more recently she designed the award-winning book NUKU: Stories of 100 Indigenous Women (๐š๐š’๐š—๐šŠ๐š•๐š’๐šœ๐š ๐™พ๐šŒ๐š”๐š‘๐šŠ๐š– ๐™ฝ๐šŽ๐š  ๐š‰๐šŽ๐šŠ๐š•๐šŠ๐š—๐š ๐™ฑ๐š˜๐š˜๐š” ๐™ฐ๐š ๐šŠ๐š›๐š๐šœ ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿถ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿธ, ๐š๐š’๐š—๐šŠ๐š•๐š’๐šœ๐š ๐™ฟ๐™ฐ๐™ฝ๐š‰ ๐™ฑ๐š˜๐š˜๐š” ๐™ณ๐šŽ๐šœ๐š’๐š๐š— ๐™ฐ๐š ๐šŠ๐š›๐š๐šœ ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿถ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿธ).

This year on Samoan Language Week saw the launch of โ€œ๐“๐”๐’๐ˆ๐€๐“๐€ ๐Ž ๐‹๐„ ๐“๐€๐‹๐€ ๐Ž ๐‹๐„ ๐•๐€๐•๐€๐”: ๐€๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐…๐จ๐ซ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐’๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ฌโ€ - a book compiled by Linda that pays homage to her uncle Iosua Toโ€™afa, a pioneer and hugely important Samoan artist who illustrated the 1976 iconic book - ๐“๐š๐ฅ๐š ๐จ ๐ฅ๐ž ๐•๐š๐ฏ๐š๐ฎ - ๐Œ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ก๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐ž๐ ๐ž๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐’๐š๐ฆ๐จ๐š. The book launch was also accompanied by an exhibition (๐šŒ๐šž๐š›๐š›๐šŽ๐š—๐š๐š•๐šข ๐š›๐šž๐š—๐š—๐š’๐š—๐š ๐šž๐š—๐š๐š’๐š• ๐™น๐šž๐š•๐šข ๐Ÿท๐Ÿป๐š๐š‘ ๐šŠ๐š ๐š๐š‘๐šŽ ๐™ผ๐šŠ๐š—๐š๐šŽ๐š›๐šŽ ๐™ฐ๐š›๐š๐šœ ๐™ฒ๐šŽ๐š—๐š๐š›๐šŽ), which showcases original work by Toโ€™afa and nine Aotearoa-based Samoan visual artists and renowned contemporary practitioners.

Follow Linda:

โ€ข Instagram: https://instagram.com/lindavaaeluaartist

โ€ข Purchase 'Tusiata o le Tala o le Vavau - Artists of The Forever Stories': https://www.theforeverstories.com/store-1

โ€ข Book and Exhibition Website:ย ย โ โ https://theforeverstories.com

โ€ข Tautai.org - Faleship: โ https://www.tautai.org/linda-vaaelua

โ€ข Exhibition at the Mangere Arts Centre (until July 15th, 2023): โ https://artsdiary.co.nz/170/3927.html

โ€ข Tagata Pasifika feature: https://tpplus.co.nz/arts-music/samoan-artist-inspires-the-next-generation-through-his-work/

Intro beat by Lani Alo:

โ€ข ย ย Youtube: ย โ โ โ โ โ https://www.youtube.com/@lanialoโ โ โ โ โ 

โ€ข ย ย Instagram: ย โ โ โ โ โ https://instagram.com/lanialomusicโ โ โ โ โ 

Creative Director of ย Brown Bruce Creative:

โ€ข ย ย Instagram: ย https://instagram.com/brownbrucecreative

โ€ข ย ย YouTube: https://youtube.com/@brownbrucecreativeย 

Follow Rosa:

โ€ข ย ย Instagram | Twitter | TikTok: ย @readswithrosa

Subscribe and follow the #ReadswithRosaPodcast:

โ€ข ย Youtube Channel:ย โ โ โ โ โ https://youtube.com@readswithrosaโ โ โ โ โ 

โ€ข ย Available on: Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music | Apple Podcasts