Emele Ugavule
Emele is a Tokelauan (Te Kaiga o Fagatiale, Nukunonu, Te Kaiga o Koloi, Uea) Fijian (Kaideuba, Navua) woman & multi-disciplinary storyteller working across live performance as an actor, writer, director, producer & facilitator. Her work is intercultural, incorporating film & live music Emele centres the development of trans-indigenous collaborative processes. Her work is often syncretic, unpacking the evolving relationship between herself, her community & her multiple homes - geographical, emotional & ancestral.
She is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts & the National Institute of Dramatic Art. She has performed live with Solange Knowles & the Chinati Foundation, Next Wave, Mangere Arts Centre - Nga Tohu o Uenuku, The Joan, Griffin Theatre Company, Belvoir St and at Black Girl Magic, Yirramboi Festival, Transoceanic Visual Exchange. She has also worked in film and television, featuring in ABC and Playmaker Media's series, The Code.
Emele's visual art and film has exhibited in Australia & Barbados. She recently produced the AV series, The Places We Call Home, for Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIIC), Cowbird & PBS. As a creative director & photographer Emele has worked with the likes of Ngaiire, Wallace, Crooked Letter, Ric Rufio, Kate Wadey & The New Venusians ; as a videographer she has worked for Fluir.
As a theatremaker and producer Emele has shared talanoa via ABC Arts, Pacific Mornings, Don't @ Me, ARTtalk, Humans of Newtown, Out of the Box, Huffington Post, and Audrey Journal and has been invited to speak on panels at Pasifika Film Festival, Talking Writing: Pasifika, Belvoir St (Mother Courage), We're All Going to Die Festival, Girls Talk Womens Work, Transoceanic Visual Exchange. She has worked as an Associate Producer of Q Theatre's New Works at The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Community Outreach Director of Black Birds and the Creative Director of Talanoa.
Through her IN OTHER WORDS Residency, Emele is developing a work that explores Fijian spirituality and cultural practices around death and mourning from children’s perspectives. The work is being developed into a touring theatre work and LOST IN BOOKS is excited to have been the seed funder of this body of work.