6.15pm
Winners of the Arts Pasifika Awards 2004 were announced tonight, with the $6000 Senior Pacific Islands Artist Award going to Wellington actor and director Nathaniel Lees.
Auckland artistic director and performer Lemi Ponifasio took the $5000 Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award and former Christchurch multimedia artist Lonnie Hutchinson won the $3000
award for Emerging Pacific Islands Artist, at a ceremony hosted by Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright.
Auckland tenor Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua won the $6500 Iosefa Enari Memorial Award and Auckland tufunga tamaka (an artist working with stone) Kepueli Vaomotou took the $3000 Heritage Arts Award.
The annual awards celebrate Pacific artists and their contribution to New Zealand's "rich artistic landscape and its international profile as a creative Pacific nation", Pacific Arts Committee chairwoman Marilyn Kohlhasesai said in a press release.
"The recipients of these awards produce work that is distinctive, fresh and vibrant, and are all committed to pursuing excellence in their work."
Lees' career spans 30 years. In 1993, he received the major award for Pacific Island artists from the Council for Maori and South Pacific Arts for services to theatre, and in 1995 won the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best Director for his work Think of a Garden.
He has also worked extensively in television and film. Recent film credits include Captain Mifune in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, and Ugluk in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Ponifasio has been creating productions for 20 years, both as an independent artist and as founder and artistic director of international performance ensemble MAU.
His works include Fish of the Day, Illumina, Lo'omatua, Ava, Umu/Rise, Bone Flute, Haka and Paradise.
Hutchinson 's work often confronts socio-political issues. A multimedia artist, she works in painting, sculpture, installation, moving image and performance.
Allan-Moetaua was a member of the 2001-2002 New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir and has been a member of the Tower New Zealand Youth Choir for the past two years.
The late Vaomotou was known for his "nimamea'a (magic hands)". The traditional Tongan stone artform was used to construct royal tombs, royal house foundations and aristocratic resting places.
- NZPA
