Vasemaca (FKA Ema) Tavola is a Fijian-Pākehā artist-curator currently based in South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Vasemaca’s practice is aligned with the politics of decolonisation and Indigenous feminisms, motherhood, and histories of BIPOC art and activism in the Global South. She established her painting practice in Suva, Fiji before relocating to South Auckland where she studied sculpture and holds postgraduate degrees in arts management and applied Indigenous knowledge. Since 2004, Vasemaca has produced curatorial projects for galleries and museums throughout Aotearoa, delivered 66 shows for Fresh Gallery Ōtara between 2006-2012, and contributed to the curatorium of the 4th International Biennial of Casablanca (2018). She has travelled extensively speaking on her approach to Indigenous curatorial practice and in 2019, established Vunilagi Vou, a shapeshifting gallery, creative studio and consultancy advocating for creative practice as a tool for connection, healing and decolonisation. In 2024, Vasemaca developed a curatorial methodology using the Fijian principle of solesolevaki as a language of reciprocity, co-creation, kinship and dreaming. Born in Suva, Vasemaca Tavola is proud to belong to Mataqali Navusalevu, a sub-tribe of Natusara, from the village of Dravuni, the northernmost inhabited island of the province of Kadavu, Fiji.

Photo by Nigel Borell