Tui Emma Gillies x Koloa Jewellery

I like to think of Hikule'o as representing resilience and abundance, ensuring safe voyages and bountiful catches for those who honour and respect the sea. However, following the introduction of Christianity, the worship of Hikule'o was suppressed, and Goddess figurines were ordered to be destroyed, leading to her relegation in Tongan spiritual practices.

Hikule'o is part of my culture and heritage and I'm curious to connect with what Tongans believed before the arrival of Christianity.

I like to imagine reinstating Hikule'o to her rightful status among the pantheon of Tongan gods.

This limited edition collection is part of an ongoing collaboration between Tui Emma Gillies and Koloa Jewellery. This is our latest collection and its focus is to draw attention to the breadth of what informs Tongan culture.

Tui Emma Gillies is a Tongan, New Zealand artist who specialises in tapa cloth. She has exhibited and conducted tapa workshops around New Zealand and overseas and her works have been purchased for museums and private collections all over the world. In 2018 she received the Creative New Zealand Pacific Heritage Art Award and also helped revive hiapo growing and the art of bark cloth making alongside her mother in Falevai, Vava'u where it had vanished decades earlier.

In this collaboration, Tui has used umea, a dye made of red clay from Falevai Village in Vava’u Tonga, alongside acrylic colours. The feta’aki was grown and beaten by local women in Tongatapu.

Fire has interpreted Tui Emma Gillies' stunning tapa to produce only a limited number of pieces that are mini art art works in themselves.