I Swear Panel Discussion - Bruce Barber - Te Tuhi

Te Tuhi

Bringing together a range of practicing artists, academics and researchers, this roundtable discussion explores issues of precarious citizenship, temporary labour and refugee resettlement in Aotearoa. The discussion brings elements of the exhibition 'I Swear' by Bruce Barber at Te Tuhi (13 May - 29 October 2017) into conversation with recent local and global political events and explore their impact upon the colonial legacy of Aotearoa and the Pacific. PANELLISTS Bruce Barber Professor Bruce Barber PhD is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural historian and curator, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he teaches courses in Media Arts, Art History and Contemporary Studies at NSCAD University. His art practice has been exhibited internationally and is documented in the publications Reading Rooms and Bruce Barber Work 1970-2008 He is the editor of Essays on Performance and Cultural Politicization and of Conceptual Art: the NSCAD Connection 1967-1973. He is co-editor, with Serge Guilbaut and John O'Brian of Voices of Fire: Art Rage, Power, and the State. Editor of Conde + Beveridge: Class Works (2008); author of Performance [Performance] and Performers: Essays and Conversations (2 volumes) edited by Marc Léger (2008), Trans/Actions: Art, Film and Death (2008) and Littoral Art and Communicative Action (2013). www.brucebarber.ca Pauline Gardiner Barber (chair) Professor of Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, Canada. Migration specialist working on Philippine global migration. Her most recent project explores the transnational effects of recent major changes to Canada’s “just-in-time” immigration system. Arama Rata (Ng?ti Maniapoto, Taranaki, and Ng?ruahine) After completing a PhD in Psychology, she lectured in M?ori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Now at the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, she has research projects into a variety of M?ori issues, including attitudes towards immigration and political participation. Dr Rata is also the M?ori spokesperson for MARRC (Migrants and Refugee Rights Campaign). Andrea Merino-Ortiz MA anthropology student interested in the effects of New Zealand’s heavy reliance on volunteers in the resettlement of Columbian refugees. She explores how volunteers affect resettlement, and how refugees engage with volunteer-based assistance in the process of resettlement. Mua Strickson-Pua Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua is a Samoan-Chinese poet born in Aotearoa. He is a Presbyterian minister and community work chaplain practitioner of P.A.T.H. Pasifika Arts for Therapy and Healing at Tagata Pasifika Resources Development Trust serving Pacific nations communities in Auckland for the last ten years. He is also the co-founder of Street Poets Black.