The Übersee-Museum Bremen’s collaborative exhibition project “The Blue Continent”, which gave rise to many stories, was an extraordinary journey.
Discover the background to the work of the museum, the challenges of an international project, a wide range of information on environment and sustainability, various experiments and artistic approaches as well as Pacific insights.
Sohaila Abdulali is a native of Bombay and a transplanted native of New York. She writes for a living and also for fun. Her latest book is What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, published worldwide in eight languages so far. She is the author of the novels The Madwoman of Jogare and Year of the Tiger, as well as four children’s books – the RangBibi and Langra series. Her short fiction and non-fiction has been published internationally, and it includes five years of a column on gender in Mint, an op-ed in the New York Times that broke readership records, and many pieces on topics ranging from criminal justice to malaria control to development issues. She writes grants, website copy, reports, stories, and anything else. She and her laptop have found themselves in unexpected places, from Samoa to Utrecht to Jaipur, pondering the world. Find Sohaila or contact her through.
Simran Ahuja is a journalist from India, with bylines in major Indian publications such as The Hindu, The New Indian Express and The Times of India. She is currently based in Germany, pursuing an MA under the Erasmus Mundus Journalism, Media and Globalisation program, where she will graduate with a double degree from Aarhus University, Denmark, and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. She is also a freelance writer and communications specialist.
Poet and performer Hinemoana Baker traces her Māori ancestry from tribes in both the North and South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Her poetry collections, original music albums and other sonic and written work have seen her on stages and pages in many countries around world for the last 25 years. in 2023, her most recent poetry collection, Funkhaus, was published in Germany as a bilingual volume (English and German, translated by Ulrike Almut Sandig) by Voland & Quist | AZUR Edition. More information at: www.hinemoana.co.nz
Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo is a queer, multi-ethnic, multi-hyphenate Hawai’i-based artist. He’s the Lead Steward + Head Jester & Primary Arts Advocate of Kamamo House, an artist cultivation organization, theatre collective, and podcast.
Sean’s innovative and award-winning creative work include his plays otou-san, the isle is full of noises, and tourist shell shock and the numerous shows he devised with Honolulu Theatre for Youth including Stories of Oceania (lead actor, composer), “Da Holidays” episode of The HI Way (co-producer, co-writer, composer, and co-director), and Imi Ā Loaʻa (co-writer, performer, and composer) an augmented reality play.
Sean was honored to be one of three Pasifika commissioned artists as part of Weaving a Narrative, a workshop series created in collaboration with the Übersee Museum (Germany) and the Pacific Virtual Museum Project (New Zealand). He looks forward to continuing to foster pilina with other Pasefika peoples, cultivating talk story talanoas and sharing aloha wherever he goes.
Sarah Gillett investigates the life of things across space and time. She has a soft spot for meteorites, the colour blue, old dictionaries, Victorian nutcrackers and handwritten messages on early postcards. In another life she would have been an astronaut.
Lisa Hilli is an artist who helps museums curate exhibitions that focus on indigenous perspectives. She is also a member of “Powerhousegalang”, an international indigenous think tank of the Powerhouse Museum in Australia.
Mahima Jain is a journalist covering the socio-economics of gender, health, and the environment. She uses the lens of inequity and injustice in systems for her features, long-form articles and podcasts. She has bylines in over two dozen global and Indian publications. She was a climate journalism fellow at the Constructive Institute, Aarhus University, Denmark in 2024. She previously held editorial positions at The Hindu Group and the London School of Economics. Mahima was a finalist for the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award in 2021, and the Mumbai Press Club Redink Awards, and the Society of Publishers in Asia Awards. She’s a two time UNFPA Laadli Award winner for her coverage of gender issues in India.
Faiza Khan is a Former Consulting Editor at Bloomsbury UK and currently a freelance editor working with publishing houses including Faber & Faber, Penguin-Random House and HarperCollins, along with individual clients. She is also a founding director of Silk Road Slippers, designing and leading creative writing masterclasses in Marrakech and London with some of the world’s most prestigious authors, featured in the Financial Times and The Times.
Emelihter Kihleng is from Pohnpei Island, Micronesia and was raised there, on Guam and in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. She is Curator Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and has held curatorial fellowships at the Denver Art Museum in Colorado and the MARKK – Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg. Poetry is Emeli’s first love and her first collection, My Urohs, was published by Kahuaomānoa Press in 2008. She co-edited Indigenous Literatures of Micronesia (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2020) and has published poetry in various literary journals.
Stacey Kokaua (Ngāti Arerā ō Rarotonga, Ngāti Pāmati and Pākehā) is a writer who lives in Parihaumia in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her work has featured in Landfall, Pantograph Punch, Turbine | Kapohau and Tatou Publishing’s Vā: Stories by Women of the Moana Anthology. She is currently working on a PhD in Pacific Literary Studies at the University of Otago that explores eco-critical themes in Cook Islands literature.
Stacey Kokaua (Ngāti Arerā ō Rarotonga, Ngāti Pāmati and Pākehā) is a writer who lives in Parihaumia in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her work has featured in Landfall, Pantograph Punch, Turbine | Kapohau and Tatou Publishing’s Vā: Stories by Women of the Moana Anthology. She is currently working on a PhD in Pacific Literary Studies at the University of Otago that explores eco-critical themes in Cook Islands literature.
Taputukura Raea is of Cook Island descent from the beautiful islands of Mauke, Pamati, Rarotonga and Tahiti. She grew up in Paraparaumu in Wellington, New Zealand. She has a MSc in Marine Biology and previously worked with Māori and Pacific students to revitalise Mātauranga Māori and Pacific traditions in New Zealand schools. As the Engagement Manager at the National Library of New Zealand she is committed to building connections between Pacific communities who would like to share their stories and the GLAM sector that holds items of Pacific heritage.
Kia orana tatou katotoa i te aroa ma’ata o to tatou atu ko iesu mesia. Te karanga nei te para pore “Auraka taau kia riro i te ta’i kē”. Ko Taputukura tōku ingoa, E tamaine au na Caroline Marsters raua ko Mouauri Raea. Tōku Metua tane no Mauke, mai (Ngaputoru) Ngati Akatauira, Manihiki, Rakahanga. Ko Raea to ingoa kopu tangata Tōku Metua vaine, No Pamati, Rakahanga, Tongareva, Rarotonga, Ngati Pera, Ngati io, No Tahiti uānga Pomare ete uānga Dean. Ko Marsters to ingoa kopu tangata. E no’o ana au ki Raumati Beach. E angaanga ana au ki Poneke, roto ite National Library. Tōku taoanga Engagement manitia.
Natasha Ratuva (she/her) is a Taukei (Kadavu vasu i Bua) multi-disciplinary creative based on Ngāti Rākaiwhakairi whenua in Aotearoa, NZ. Natasha’s practice spans the mediums of photography, digital art, poetry, gardening and Taukei traditional practices. Recently, Natasha has brought masi (indigenous Fijian barkcloth) to the forefront of her creative practice. Masi is deepy integral to Taukei culture and tradition, often present in ceremonies throughout a person’s life. Natasha uses natural pigments and dyes to carefully hand paint traditional patterns and contemporary compositions onto masi to reimagine and expand expressions of her Taukei identity.
Audiovisual experience designer, sound and new media artist. He received international funding and awards and is regularly invited to conferences and art residencies. Radek collaborated with NASA’s GISS, SpaceBase, New Zealand and Stockholm Environment Institute on projects linking art, science and technology, which he presented in the USA, Europe and New Zealand. In his works he emphasises a varied range of digital art, including algorithmic composition, generative AI, free improvisation and re-contextualisation of traditional music using electronics. His projects were presented at events such as Tokyo Festival of Modular; Stockholm Tech Fest; New Frontiers, New Zealand; London Jazz Festival; elbPhilharmonie, Hamburg; Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw Poland.
Kush Sethi is a gardener, forager and educator based out of New Delhi. Formally trained in Green Chemistry, he transitioned to urban ecology through field research in the Delhi Ridge forests. Inspired by ecosystem resiliency, he began creating a practice around understanding problems in manicured urban landscaping and finding wilder, self-sustainable approaches. Since 2017, he has designed and maintained over 20 private domestic gardens and curated nature-based walking excursions focused on participatory knowledge creation for travelers, corporates and domestic audiences.
Kush has experience in working on digital storytelling for art and culture projects, driven by city experts and supported by local government, on advocacy and engagement for urban biodiversity zones, historical sites, architecture, food and oral history. He now visits to teach ‘gardening and ecology’ modules at multiple Indian universities.
Seuta’afili Patrick Thomsen (he/they) is a Senior Lecturer in Global Studies and Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medical Health Sciences at Waipapa Taumata Rau – The University of Auckland. Dr Thomsen is of Samoan descent from the villages of Vaimoso, Vaigaga and Moamoa in Independent Samoa, and grew up in South Auckland, New Zealand. He is also the Principal Investigator for the Manalagi Project, the first Pacific Rainbow+ (queer, LGBTQIA+, MVPFAFF+) health and wellbeing project to be funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. He received his PhD from the University of Washington in 2018 and his Master’s degree in International Studies from Seoul National University in South Korea. Dr Thomsen’s research focuses on the wellbeing of Pacific queer communities in Aotearoa-New Zealand, Pacific research methodologies and methods, as well as queer transnationalisms. His PhD study was the first to use Pacific research methodologies in a Korean queer studies context, which was published in his book “From Sleepless in Seattle to I Seoul You: Korean Gay Men and Crosscultural Encounters in Transnational Times.”
Catherine Wallace is a writer and award-winning editor with a passion for the art and anthropology of journalism. In fellowships and in the newsrooms of several of Canada’s leading newspapers, she has explored the connecting force of storytelling and how to expand its power in cultural and urban spheres.
Born in Isfahan (Iran), Zam Zadeh is a director, illustrator and storyteller. She has a background in speculative narration, visual arts, and digital storytelling. Her work has been shown in South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and Belgium.
In 2020, her virtual reality project based on the poetry of Omar Khayyam – Glad that I came, not sorry to depart, received a jury Prize at the Anima Festival.
Das Projekt NEO-Collections wurde gefördert im Programm Kultur Digital
Funded by the Digital Culture Programme of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Gefördert von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien:
We thank our cooperation partners
“If you want to tell good stories, you have to have the patience to just hang around with people.”
Priya Padma In conversation with Catherine Wallace
New York-based author Sohaila Abdulali was there when the team from the Übersee-Museum visited their colleagues at the National University of Samoa. One of our greatest adventures was the citizen science project on the Vaisigano River.
New York-based author Sohaila Abdulali was there when the team from the Übersee-Museum visited their colleagues at the National University of Samoa. One of our greatest adventures was the citizen science project on the Vaisigano River.
New Yorker author Sohaila Abdulali joined the Übersee-Museum team on a trip to Samoa to take part in the Vaisigano River Project and report about it.
New York-based author Sohaila Abdulali was there when the team from the Übersee-Museum visited their colleagues at the National University of Samoa. One of our greatest adventures was the citizen science project on the Vaisigano River.
Using data collection, the Übersee-Museum Bremen together with the National University of Samoa have co-created the citizen science project.
Poets Emelihter Kihleng and Hinemoana Baker created poems from the visual collections at the Übersee-Museum Bremen. In the public presentation of this work, they discussed how poetry can become a source of storytelling that creates emotional resonance around museum objects.
This photo story shows the journey of the boat prow, which was in the Übersee-Museum, to Samoa.
Building up collections and preserving them is a process. To preserve the flora and fauna, the National University of Samoa is establishing a natural history collection.