Private Project

Tep Tok : The Auckland Conversation

Tep Tok (Tap Talk) around the importance of tattoo revival and the continuance of marking skin for the next generation.
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This short documentary captures a series of Auckland conversations with Tepaeru Ariki Lulu French, Tyla Vaeau, Ema Tavola, Milly Koria Grant, Graham Tipene, Ahukata Keefe, Salevasa Gray, Georgie Williams and Moko Smith.

  • Julia Mage'au Gray
    Director
    Tep Tok : Reading Between Our Lines, The Calling, Ropu
  • Sunameke Productions
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 17 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 31, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    New Zealand
  • Country of Filming:
    New Zealand
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Julia Mage'au Gray

MEKEO PEOPLE
BORN 1973, PORT MORESBY, CENTRAL PROVINCE,
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
LIVES AND WORKS IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Julia Mage'au Gray is a dancer, choreographer, skin marker (tattooist), photographer and film-maker who is interested in exploring her Papuan and Mekeo heritage within an urban Australian and New Zealand context. Her performances frequently combine dance with evocative video narratives. Now based in Auckland, Gray co-founded the performance group Sunameke in 1997. Dress or adornment, including the marking of the body with tatu (tattoo), is often of particular significance in her performances and films.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Myself as a Papua New Guinea Australian skin marker and film maker, this short documentary is a sharing of the conversations had in and around Auckland centred on the practice of marking skin from the city my family choose to live in. Voices of Ta Moko practitioners to curators, healers, performers and youth speak to their insights and hope for the revival and continuance of the many Indigenous skin marking practices present in Auckland.

Tep Tok : The Auckland Conversation is a precursor to the full length documentary Tep Tok : Our Lines Connect Us releasing in December 2020. Travelling, filming and editing Tep Tok : Reading Between Our Lines from 2012 to 2015 was a defining period of time that transformed myself from a dancer and visual artist to then picking up the tools and learning to mark skin.

The Tep Tok documentaries are not the typical traditional or cinematic documentary but a complex and layered puzzle piecing of many voices from the stories shared with myself and my family. These documentaries are an avenue to author the stories of the people I mark and meet through the work of Melanesian Marks.
-Julia Mage'au Gray