Talanoa Forum: Swimming Against the Tide is an online and in person gathering organized by artist Yuki Kihara on the occasion of her exhibition Paradise Camp, curated by Natalie King at the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion for the 59th International Art Exhibition—the Venice Biennale. Talanoa is a pan-Pacific word that describes a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue. Using talanoa as a point of conceptual departure, artist Yuki Kihara has organized the Talanoa Forum entitled Swimming Against the Tide to extend the themes of her exhibition Paradise Camp with talanoa around small island ecologies, intersectionality, oceanhood, colonisation and collections.
Spanning across virtual and physical spaces in Venice and Leiden, Talanoa Forum is an assembly of artists, curators, scholars, activists, community leaders and policymakers into a series of critical talanoa inspired by the words of the late Māori New Zealand filmmaker Merata Mita who declared “swimming against the tide makes you stronger.” Meta explored the political tensions in Aotearoa during the 1970s and the 80s by championing issues such as Indigenous sovereignty and gender equality. Mitaʻs words orient the Talanoa Forum towards how localized strategies including art, activism and policy are being shaped to address the global concerns of our times.
