John Pule

Niue / Aotearoa New Zealand

John Pule is a Niuean artist, novelist and poet who lives in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Born in the village of Liku on the South Pacific island of Niue, he immigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand at the age of two in 1964. Pule returned to Niue in 1991 and has since visited regularly. His work is inspired by the history and mythology of Niue and his own experience of migration and identity. He is self-taught and highly inventive, especially in his adaptation of traditional Pacific art forms such as tapa cloth. Pule is also challenging and provocative in his expression of Pacific culture, history, colonisation and migration.