This Must Be the Island

This Must Be the Island — Liga Hanai e Motu Oceanic conversations

In 2010, poet-artists John Puhiatau Pule and Gregory O’Brien embarked on a voyage of artmaking and travel around the South Pacific, making collaborative etchings, corresponding, writing poetry and immersing themselves in Moana Oceania.

Sixteen years on, their collaboration continues to yield a heady mixture of dreams, memories and a pervasive sense of the joy and wonder of being alive in this part of the world. This Must Be the Island — Liga Hanai e Motu is the story of their creative friendship and an art project as expansive and all-encompassing as the Pacific.

'A remarkable immersive record of artistic friendship and oceanic thinking. It's a gorgeous archive of two lives moving through the Pacific, as broad and as deep, attentive to its histories, its weather and its imaginative power' — Andrew Paul Wood, New Zealand Listener

'An extraordinary book – part conversation, part visual diary, part poetry book and an exploration of artistic motivation' — John Daly Peoples, New Zealand Arts Review

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