The Veiqia Project is honoured to be the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Arts Pasifika Award in the Pacific Heritage Arts category.
Creative New Zealand hosted the 2025 Arts Pasifika Awards on 5 November 2025, recognising Pasifika creatives for their outstanding contributions across eight different categories.
The Veiqia Project has received the Pacific Heritage Arts Award which recognises a major contribution by a Pasifika artist or community group to maintaining, reviving or promoting a Pacific heritage artform in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This recognition marks a significant milestone as the collective celebrates its 10-year anniversary. What started as an arts-research collective has laid a strong foundation for the revival of veiqia with collective member Margaret Aull now practicing as a daubati (tattooist).
We know some of the impact of our resurgence work. Knowledge and awareness are returning. Marks are once again on the skin of women born to wear them. The language has been given new breath and the years of silence give way to contemporary talanoa about the practice of Veiqia. It’s a blessing to be a part of this work.
The Veiqia Project
Founded in 2015, The Veiqia Project is a collective of Fijian women based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Through exhibitions, art-making, research, and community engagement, the collective has created vital spaces for Fijian women to reconnect with veiqia, the traditional Fijian female tattooing practice. The collective includes: Donita Vatuinaruku Hulme, Dulcie Stewart, Margaret Aull, Joana Monolagi, Luisa Keteiyau Tora, Dr Tarisi Vunidilo, and Yasbelle Kerkow.
Na Cagi Ni Veisau
To mark our 10 year anniversary, the Veiqia Project, in collaboration with the Fiji Museum, will launch Na Cagi Ni Veisau next week in Suva. Opening to the public on 14 November 2025, the exhibition centres liku (fibre skirts), as powerful cultural signifiers of Fijian womanhood. Before colonisation, a girl’s first menstruation was celebrated by receiving qia (tattoo), along with her first liku. Featuring newly commissioned works by twelve Fijian artisans and artists from Fiji, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, Na Cagi Ni Veisau honours significant life stages of Fijian women: from first menstruation and tattoo marking, to marriage, motherhood, and elderhood.
