Sistar S’pacific aka is an innovator of the contemporary Pasifika art scene. She is a long-standing member of the art collective, the Pacific Sisters and a founding member of the SaVAge K’lub. Over the past twenty years, Raymond’s activities have made her a notable producer of, and commentator on, contemporary Pacific Island culture in Aotearoa and internationally. She specialises in working within museums and higher education institutions.

Raymond has achieved international renown for her performances, installations, body adornment, and spoken word. A published writer and poet, her works are held by museums and private collectors throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Aotearoa. Raymond is an Honorary Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology and Institute of Archaeology at University College London and a former Chesterdale Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (2017). She was the Pacific Artist in Residence at Government House (2017) and is currently a researcher for the AUT Marsden funded project Vā Moana.

The Revenge of Rohe. “Maui of thousand tricks, part human, part divine ... mischief maker, inventor, monster slayer, shape shifter, fire starter, cosmogonic hero … to some … murderer, kidnapper, elder abuser, stalker, thief, liar, and general pain in the nono to his siblings…and others. Don’t get me wrong, I love Maui, one of my first ever role models, he taught me a lot … things like if you go down on a goddess…don’t take your friends, especially the ones that can’t keep quiet. ...ok I might have learnt that by ownself. While I don’t have a thousand tricks up my sleeve, I did imbibe his sense of curiosity and the need to challenge the status quo…with a reminder not to push the envelope too far … least I meet the same fate.

While most of the Moana portray Maui as a hyper masculine super being and the missionaries and Disney emasculating him, I pondered the obvious signs of toxic masculinity and wondered what a (re)telling of Maui might be fabricated through the eyes of his second wife Rohe. Did I mention he wasn’t known for his good looks, but a spectacular penis that hung to the left. (Natalie Robertson told me that one) Rohe on the other hand was a great beauty, sister of the sun, so jealous was Maui of her beauty he opted to steal her face and in doing so killed her…but in my purākau..it wasn’t her face he ended up with…ha sucked in Maui, maybe that’s why you didn’t want to come back from the underworld.”