Tune in live on YouTube on Saturday 18 July (10am NZ / 8am SYD / 6am HK / 11pm UK / 6pm NYC (Fri)) to hear from storyteller Emele Ugavele and author Tīhema Baker as they discuss how the concepts of story sovereignty and reclamation affect their lives and work, and what we should all be doing to support marginalised storytellers.

Can’t tune in live? Full recording will be available to catch up on YouTube later. Make sure you’ve subscribed so you don’t miss a thing!

EMELE UGAVULE

Emele Ugavule is a Tokelauan, Uvean, and Fijian storyteller. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), and Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: NZ Drama School she has worked with various artists and organisations across the Pacific including Sydney Opera House, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, Netflix and Mad Ones Films, ABC Australia, Creative Australia, Creative New Zealand and Sony Australia.

Her work centres on Indigenous Oceanic storytelling, exploring themes of temporality, memory, kinship, technology and knowledge transmission. She has tutored across performing arts and design technology at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: NZ Drama School, WAAPA, NIDA and Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University (Miramar Creative Centre) and guest lectured at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

She is a founding member of Studio Kiin, an Indigenous-led creative studio and collective, served as the Creative Director of Talanoa, a platform dedicated to Oceanic digital storytelling, the curator of Tok Talanoa and Tadra Vata, Melanesian and Oceanic event series, and co-founder of Yavu ni Mataka, an Indigenous Futures focused social enterprise with her husband.

Instagram: @studiokiin_ / @yavunimataka

TĪHEMA BAKER

Tīhema Baker (Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga, Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) is a writer from Ōtaki. His writing often explores the complex interactions between and within te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā, based on personal and professional experience.

Tīhema is the author of satirical novel Turncoat, which was longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2024. His next novel, One Day a Taniwha, explores Māori fatherhood and mental health and releases 11 August 2026.

Instagram: @tihemabaker.writer