Join us for an afternoon of dialogue and discovery with artists Taloi Havini and Marilyn ‘Taleo’ Havini alongside curator Ruth McDougall. Together, they will guide us through the exhibition space, offering personal insights into its themes of family, history, and Bougainville’s journey toward self-determination.
Please RSVP below – we look forward to seeing you!
About Shared Aspirations
Inspired by a line that the late Bougainvillean statesman Moses Havini (1947 – 2015) wrote in a love letter in the 1960s, Shared Aspirations revisits an exhibition of work by his daughter Taloi, presented at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2023. At Taloi’s request, this exhibition included work by her mother Marilyn, the recipient of the letter.
Bringing together archives, video, and paintings, Shared Aspirations is presented at a critical juncture in Bougainville’s journey towards Independence inviting us to share the art of two women whose lives have both contributed to – and been shaped by – the Bougainville’s people’s pursuit of cultural, economic and political self- determination.
Meet the Artists
Taloi Havini (b, 1981, Arawa, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea; lives and works in Brisbane, Australia) is an interdisciplinary artist working across media from sculpture, photography, moving image, installation and sound. A descendant from the Nakas clan of the Hakö (Haku) people of northeastern Buka, her research practice is shaped by her matrilineal ties to her land in Bougainville and studies surrounding Indigenous Knowledge Systems and museum collections. Havini creates immersive and site-specific experiences, often reflecting on ideas of transmission, mapping and representation. She continues to work collaboratively on cultural heritage projects with communities in Bougainville.
Havini’s artwork is held in public and private collections including TBA21–Academy, Sharjah Art Foundation, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), National Gallery of Victoria and KADIST, San Francisco, CA, USA.
She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions exhibiting with the Artspace, Sydney; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Sharjah Biennial 13, UAE; 3rd Aichi Triennial, Nagoya; 8th & 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, Brisbane; TBA21’s Ocean Space, Venezia; Barbican Centre, London, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, NZ, the Honolulu Biennial, HA, ARTES Mundi, 10, Wales and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Marilyn Havini OM, (b.1948, Sydney Australia, lives and works in Ngakobul Village, Buka Island in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville). Adopted into her husband Moses Havini’s Nakas clan in 1970 with the traditional name of Taleo, Marilyn works in oils to explore life and culture immersed within the environment of her adopted homeland. Traversing periods of conflict through to aspirations for a Independent future her works provide an important document of Bougainvillean history as one tied to the land.
Marilyn’s works are held in public and private collections including the Bougainville Parliament and senior members of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville government. She was the designer of the Bougainville flag, has won paintings awards in Papua New Guinea and participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions including most recently: Shared Aspirations: Taloi Havini, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2023; 15 Artists, Redcliffe Regional Art Gallery, 2022 and A Courage for Peace, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 2019.
Ruth McDougal | Photo: Digine Dickson courtesy of Haus Yuriyal.
Ruth McDougall is an Australian born curator working with artists and communities across Oceania. She has worked as part of the Asia Pacific Art Department at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art since 2003, caring for stories, artworks, relationships and conversations. As Curator, Pacific Art she led the exhibitions and publications for sis: Pacific Art 1980-2023; No 1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1966-2016 and Threads: Contemporary Textiles and the Social Fabric. She has been a key member of the Curatorial team for seven APTs as well as the Pacific Textiles Project in APT 5. Prior to this she was Exhibitions Coordinator, Institute of Modern Art (1999-2003) and Curatorial Officer, University of Queensland Art Museum (1996-99) where she curated the touring exhibition, publication and conference Close Ties; Kay Lawrence and Marcel Marois. McDougall holds a Masters in Visual Arts from Goldsmiths College, London and was a recipient of the inaugural round of Samstag Visual Arts Scholarships in 1994. In 2013, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to research Pacific Textiles. In 2024 she was awarded the ICOM Individual Award for her services to contemporary Pacific Art in Australia.