First Nations curators, artists and researchers are invited to participate in a roundtable conversation led by Cook Island/Australian artist Sophia Summers, informed by the abstract below.
To express your interest, please contact: sophiaesummers@icloud.com
Abstract
Sophia Summers’ practice-led research was grounded in a reconnection with Rarotonga, the birthplace of her Māmārūau (grandmother). Drawing on cyclical creative process, the research embraced iteration and reflexive practice. Beginning in Rarotonga, she documented her connection to land through photography and video. Through poetry, she reflected on these experiences before returning to Australia, yet Rarotonga remained present within her practice.
Within colonial institutions, dominant discourses of Indigenous peoples often marginalise Indigenous voices and knowledge systems. While decolonial theory provided a foundation, she sought a framework rooted in the relational nature of Indigenous experience. Dominant approaches often separate artworks from the stories they hold, their meanings, and makers. Through an autoethnographic lens of creative process, every artwork, poem, experience, and conversation became interlocked.
To articulate this research, she developed three guiding elements: Place as the grounding of self, People as connection to community, and Time as the capacity for change. Each remains connected through culture, creative practice, and love.
Drawing on bell hooks’ concept of a love ethic, this research proposes love as a way beyond dominant discourse and towards valuing the relationships culture creates. Extending this framework into curatorial practice reimagines curation as a loving and relational act across people, places, and time.
About Sophia Summers
Sophia Summers is a Master of Philosophy candidate at Queensland University of Technology whose creative practice-led research explores reconnection to Cook Islands culture through her lived diasporic experience as a biracial woman who grew up and lives in Australia.
Working across photography, videography, poetry, and painting, she investigates the relationships between culture, identity, place, and belonging. Her research takes a deeply personal and autoethnographic approach, critiquing institutional structures that often remove relational acts which are key to Indigenous methodology.
Summers’ current work explores curatorial practice through a relational framework grounded in Place, People, Time, and a love ethic. Through immersive installations, she brings together interconnected artworks that reflect a deep love of culture.