A new album from Christchurch is all about being a Pacific artist in the South Island, away from New Zealand's larger Pasifika populations.
Conversations on the Edges of Rooms is a compilation album from 12 Christchurch Pacific artists sharing original songs across a variety of genres, including country and spoken word.
Solomon Smith is one of the directors of th'Orchard, a creative arts space for young Pasifika artists in Hoon Hay, which is leading the project in partnership with the Pacific Music Awards.
"[The album] is basically about us as Pacific within the South Island feeling isolated and not part of the main conversation that happens within the bigger populations of Pacific within New Zealand in Wellington and Auckland," Smith said.
"The Conversation on the Edges of rooms is like the exciting conversations that no one talks about but it's the place that people want to be.
"Every individual piece isn't around, 'hey, here I am I'm Pasifika', it's more about well who are you, as a person."
Solomon Smith co-founder of th’Orchard. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Ana Mulipola, one of the artists who goes by the stage name Kalasiana, said the title "speaks to the fact that we are often side lined in the Pacific music scene as well as the mainstream music scene in New Zealand".
However, Mulipola felt she had also side lined herself in the past.
"I have hidden under a rock writing songs for decades and this album is an opportunity for me to actually bring it to life and put it out there in the world."
Ana Mulipola, who goes by the stage name Kalasiana, says she feels she has sidelined herself in the past when it comes to writing music. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Mark Vanilau the other co-founder of th'Orchard said Christchurch artists often had a different sound.
"The southern Pacific voices are different to the Northern sound, in stories and even topics, content, the way that we think, the experiences that we have," Vanilau said.
"For me being in the south and growing up in the 70s, it was a white Christchurch for me, it was a very small Pacific population."
He said his community was centred around church and he didn't know much outside of that.
"I write a lot about what I was going through, how I felt about the way I was being treated, how I react to it, how I feel about it now."
Vanilau said the Pacific arts community today is small but fairly strong and still developing.
"What I do know about the Pacific community is it's very supportive of each other."
Smith said Pasifika artists in Christchurch needed to adapt to being in a smaller Pacific population, compared to those in Wellington and Christchurch.
"What you're having to do as an artist is probably produce creativity that reaches far more than just as you say the Pacific audience, more of a wider general population."
Christchurch Pacific musician, Karen Mara. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Another artist Keren Mara said it seemed to be a healing album.
"A lot of the artists seem to have a lot of life experience, so a lot of the writing is very authentic, so I just really hope that people enjoy it and can relate it to their own lives."
