Then and There, Here and Now: Portraits of Samoa offers a look at historical and contemporary photographic portraits of Samoans, created by both New Zealand and Samoan photographers over a period of 150 years.

This exhibition engages with the ideas of the muagagana (Samoan saying) “e sui faiga ae tumau faavae,” which means that even if practices, methods, and approaches in our everyday lives change, the foundations stay the same. The photographs will emphasise the change and continuation of traditional values over time and space, by exploring how Samoan photographers in New Zealand present themselves and their communities today, as opposed to those presentations created by earlier non-Samoan photographers.

By focusing on Samoan heritage relating to dress, tatau (tattooing), gender, the home, community, and nature, these works create a narrative that helps to link diaspora communities here in New Zealand back to communities in Samoa from the past and in the present.