Asoso: Resting Collectively, Rising Collectively

Ran annim (Chuuk), lokwe aolep (Marshall Islands), malo lava (Sāmoa),welkam (Papua New Guinea) and si’oto’ofa (Tonga) from the Ancestral homelands of the Newe, Nuche and Kusiutta (the Westside of Salt Lake City, Utah).

We are the Asoso team.

We are the descendants of the ocean, we call Moana or Oceania. Moana is the beginning for us. There are 60,000 Oceania and Moana descendants in Utah, the largest growing community on Turtle Island (Northern America) outside of our homelands.

Our interpretation of the New Frontier as Oceania, looks to the past in the front and the future is behind.

“In the Hawaiian language, the past is ka wā mamua (the time in front or befre) and the future is kā wa mahope (the time that comes after or behind). Hawaiian stand firmly in the present, with his back to the future, and his eyes fixed upon the past, seeking historical answers for present-day dilemmas.”

Lilikalā Kame’eleihiwa, Native Hawaiian Historian

“This cultural arrangement of space-time helps Oceanians retain memories of the past and awareness of its presence. “In the Fijian and Tongan languages, the terms for past are gauna i liu and kuonga mu’a,

gauna and kuonga- ‘time’, ‘age’, era liu and mu’a - front, ahead “

Epeli Hau’ofa and Tēvita Ka'ili beloved Moana-Oceania stewards

In September 2021 our team received the Harvard Oceania Collections Engagement Fellowship bestowed by Harvard Peabody Museum, Harvard Oceania Alumni, University of Utah School for Social Transformation and Change and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

Asoso: Resting Collectively, Rising Collectively

Our Ancestors treasured rest. They carved and created headrests from ironwood, bamboo and natural materials. The ali in Samoan and kali in Tongan were what headrests were called. The kali was a long piece of ironwood with a stand or two wooden legs underneath. The kali represented the arms of a mother. As a child young Samoan and Oceania relative you are told of your lineage, ancestral stories and greatness at the arms of your Grandma, Mama or dear relative.

Our art installation attempted to honor our Ancestors, our Ancestral belongings held at the Oceania section of the Harvard Peabody museum and our lives in our neighborhoods of Salt Lake County.

Asoso originates from the Chuukese expression of “our rest” through the sharing of Paul O’toko a beloved elder and water protector.

Moana and Oceania deaths for COVID-19 were higher than their neighbors in Utah. Relatives passing and funerals to attend are a norm now since 2020.

Asoso is an art installation encompassing film, XR,VR, Immersive, photography, a LIVE kava ceremony, archival still images from Harvard, paintings and drawings by children, youth, and members of the Utah Oceania community. Art was made and expressed during community gatherings with the Marshallese, Tongan, Samoan, LGBTQ Oceania collective, Nuanua, many, many gatherings, Zooms, breaking bread and shifting.

Asoso calls to remember and revive rest in the daily and precious lives of team and our neighborhoods. In the practices of our Ancestors from Africa, a call and response was shared.

Asoso encouraged the question of what will we put to rest that no longer serves us? How do we put that to rest in our Indigenous ways with capitalism, grief and joy? How do we learn from our Black, differently abled, queer, Asian, Latinx and working class neighbors?

At the end of June 2022 our Asoso team visited Harvard University. Our Asoso team reunited with the ali and kali at Harvard. We cradled them, embraced and held them. The reunion was heavy, joyful and emotions as vast as our Oceania. We witnessed there were no labels for class, gender, sexual orientation, race, differently abled nor colorism. We held an ali that was 12 feet. A frontier waiting for us.

August 12th and 13th, 2022 was the opening night and weekend of our exhibit at the 25th Anniversary of the Friendly Island Tongan Festival in Glendale-Salt Lake City, Utah, the Westside, the home of the first Oceania families, Black and brown, queer, differently abled, working class and rising gentrification.

Asoso offers and welcomes you to step into a Oceania-Moana frame of a home in Utah.

The artists who answered this calling were children, teenagers, generation Z to our elders. Children and teens drew pictures and painted. Elders and youth spoke openly on video about their dreams and what no longer serves us. Dr. Lani Taholo an Oceania therapist of 35 plus years shares her experiences.

Upon entering any Oceania home, one is asked to remove their shoes. This is to honor the home, leave the energy of the outside to the exterior of the home and to keep the home clean. The XR, VR-Immersive experiences are interwoven with the archival stills, paintings, poetry and spheres created throughout the model home.

Through out the home larger than life are still images of the Asoso team holding the headrests, archival images of Ancestors resting in West Papua,Hawai’i to Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

The first room you enter is a kitchen there is a kitchen table. There are signs of labor in physical, cultural, intellectual, spiritual and emotional labor. The kitchen table has work boots underneath, a football, a volleyball, there are Styrofoam plates on the table with logos of McDonalds, cigarette boxes, alcohol and diabetic medicine. The energy is exhaustion in this room.

The second room you enter is the living room. A television or televisions watch Oceania members. Folks fight about bills, a high school graduation, children asking their parents to get off their phones, Oceania relatives singing acapella, walking by the Jordan River. The energy is coping.

The third room is the Rest room. The art work of the children, the poems of the teens, queer Oceania voices and art talanoa-tok stori (discussions) about rest in a peaceful manner. Flowers and plants filled the installation. The lighting was soft or natural. There are soft places to land with cultural and Ancestral mats, tapa cloth and belongings. The energy is resting and letting go.

When we went to Harvard there were many restrictions against children and only an individual attending the museum. We could not touch or hold our Ancestral pieces under particular guidelines.

Asoso attempts to interrupt this framework. Our team was pushed and nurtured by the young leaders. Our greatest treasures within Oceania are our children and relationships. Children were at every meeting. Elders and food were a must. The effort was collective in every way with smashing ego and the façade of power.

We opened our exhibit not in a museum but with our communities of Black, brown, working class, queer, differently abled. We did not charge anyone. Children touched everything and their art work was seen and centered. The elders were looked to for guidance, grounding us, connecting us to the land and water. We learned from the generation Z how to let go to share via social media, rest collectively and rise collectively.

Every age, race, queer collective and or queer sibling, differently abled, shade and color over hundreds of folks witnessed and connected, tok stori-talanoa- shared stories with us on Friday and Saturday. We talked in front of the festival on Friday night. The installation ran for 48 hours. We had a LIVE kava ceremony from 7:00 pm until 4:00 am.

We would be honored to share the experience of resting and rising together with the work we have been inspired by at Sundance.

Faka’apa’apa atu,

With respect and gratitude,

Asoso team