Julia Mageʼau Gray (born 1973) is a

dancer Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

and

tattoo artist A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via an ...

from

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, who is credited with revitalising women's tattoo traditions in communities from Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

Biography

Early life

Mageʼau Gray was born in 1973 in the Mekeo-speaking area of Central Province,

. Her mother was Papuan and her father Australian.

Career

In 1997 in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

she co-founded Sunameke, an arts performance company with Yolanda Gray, Katrina Sonter and Samantha Sonter. Her work as a dancer and choreographer is inspired by her Papua New Guinean heritage. She is known for her criticism of "Western" attempts to use one word for all the cultures of the southern Pacific Ocean, citing the wide variety of languages spoken and diversity of lived experiences. In 2014, she retrained as a tattoo artist, building on the interest she had acquired in Melanesian tattooing in her work as a choreographer and film-maker. She was encouraged to learn the art after a trip to

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

in 2012, where she met the Samoan artist Suluʻape Saʻa Alaivaʻa Petelo. She apprenticed for six months in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, where she learnt both

hand-poke Stick and poke, also known as hand poke, is a tattooing method which uses a single needle instead of a tattoo machine. Until the introduction of electric tattoo machines in the 19th century, hand-poking was a common tattooing method, alongside inc ...

and hand-tap tattooing. Often working with hand-poke techniques, she has described the process as "surprisingly gentle". In 2017 she tattooed art dealer Lana Lopesi live, as a performance which was part of the exhibition ''Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines'' held at Vunilagi Vou gallery. The exhibition was curated by

Ema Tavola Ema Tavola (born 1982) is an artist, curator, arts manager and advocate using art to centralise 'Pacific ways of seeing'. Early life and family Tavola was born in Fiji. Her father is from Dravuni in the Kadavu province of Fiji. Her mother is ...

, and was staged as a tribute to the central role that Mageʼau Gray has played in the revitalisation of Melanesian women's tattoos. In the same year Mageʼau Gray travelled to Spain, where her work was exhibited as part of the Traditional Tattoo and World Culture Festival. Mageʼau Gray is known for her work tattooing Fijian

veiqia ''Veiqia'' (), or ''Weniqia'', is a female tattooing practice in Fiji. The term refers to both the practice and to the tattoos. Women or adolescent girls who have reached puberty may be tattooed in the groin and buttocks area by older female ta ...

designs, for example on artists

Dulcie Stewart Dulcie is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin ''dulcis'', meaning ''sweet''. It has been in use in the Anglosphere since the 1800s. It was a recreation in a new form of ''Duce'', ''Douce'', or ''Dowse'', an older English name i ...

and

Luisa Tora Luisa (Italian and Spanish), Luísa ( Portuguese), or Louise (French) is a feminine given name; it is the feminine form of the given name Louis (Luis), the French form of the Frankish Chlodowig (German Ludwig), from the Germanic elements ''hl ...

, as well as other members of ''The Veiqia Project''. She also the first person in eighty years to tattoo traditional designs in the Mekeo area, that had been discouraged by the colonising activity of missionaries. In 2021, as a result of her work on reviving female tattooing in Melanesia, she was profiled in ''Crafting Aotearoa'' as an artist bringing traditional artistic practices to contemporary audiences. The same year, her 2011

audio-visual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service pro ...

work ''Best Foot Forward'' was acquired by the

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. Opened on 2 December 2006, the GOMA is Australia's l ...

Filmography

* ''Best Foot Forward'' (2011) * ''Tep Tok: Reading Between Our Lines'' (2013–15)

Exhibition and performance

* ''Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines'' (2017) * ''Wahine Toa'' (2017) * ''Melanesian Marks: IG'' (2019)

Personal life

As of 2015, she lived in Australia with her

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

husband.

References

External links

Julia Mageʼau Gray and Sunameke perform live

Nesian Dance Class with Julia Mageʼau Gray
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mage'au Gray, Julia 1973 births Living people Women tattoo artists Papua New Guinean artists Papua New Guinean women artists Choreographers Papua New Guinean dancers Tattoo artists People from Central Province (Papua New Guinea)