Benjamin Work is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), of Tongan and Orcadian/Shetlander lineage. His practice weaves together contemporary and traditional Tongan influences, reflecting the layered complexities of cultural identity across the Moana Oceania diaspora. Deeply informed by the transference of oral histories and archival documentation, his work becomes a vessel where past, present, and future intersect. Work’s MFA (Master of Fine Arts), completed in 2024, explored what he terms tu’u vaha’a – occupying the in-between, – a conceptual and spatial position that informs his investigation into Tongan narratives embedded within his maternal lineage. This stance also underpins his ongoing engagement with museum collections and the politics of cultural restitution.