Vaimoana Niumeitolu

She was born in Nuku'alofa, raised in Hawai'i and now works out of New York, but Vaimoana Niumeitolu still strongly identifies as a Tongan artist. At the moment she's in New Zealand for the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust International Artist Residency in Auckland. She's a filmmaker, actor, writer and visual artist who's studied at both Yale and Columbia University. And being multi-skilled has certainly helped her make a living in a tough competitive city. Vaimoana tells Lynn Freeman how she explores her Tongan heritage in her work, despite having lived there for just a few months: