Moana Nepia is a Māori visual and performing artist - a choreographer, curator, video artist, painter, and poet. He has choreographed for Atamira Dance Company, Footnote Dance Company, Taiao, the Royal New Zealand Ballet; he has presented work in festivals throughout the United Kingdom, in Spain, and at the Lilian Baylis Theater and The Place in London. He has devised choreographic projects for education departments of the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, London City Ballet, and Dance Advance in the United Kingdom and taught at Elam School of Fine Arts–University of Auckland, Unitec, and AUT University in Auckland in dance, visual arts, and digital and spatial design. His PhD thesis, awarded in 2013 from AUT University in Auckland, is titled Te Kore -Exploring the Māori Concept of Void. It was the first practice-led PhD thesis in visual and performing arts rooted in Māori epistemologies. At the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, he is helping to develop new courses with a focus on arts and performance in the Pacific. His interdisciplinary research interests include visual arts, dance and performance studies in the Pacific, Indigenous epistemologies, and research through creative practice.
1. Ruku – Dive: A Physicality of Thought. In Of Other Thoughts: Non-traditional Approaches to the Doctorate; A Handbook for Candidates and Supervisors, edited by A-Chr Engels-Schwarzpaul and Michael A Peters, 17-22. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
2. 2013 Te Kore and the Encounter of Performance. Presentation at the conference "Indigeneity in the Contemporary World: Performance, Politics, Belonging," Royal Holloway, University of London, London, 24-27 October. With C. Brown
3. 2012 Te Kore – Exploring the Māori Concept of Void. PhD thesis, AUT University, Auckland.
4. 2012 Extract. Dance duet with Carol Brown. Tempo Dance Festival, held at Q Theatre, Auckland, 9-10 October. Review 1 Review 2
5. 2012 Director of WHERO. Hour-long performance and video installation devised in collaboration with Paddy Free (sound) Auckland: Corban Estate Arts Centre. Reviewed in DANZ Quarterly: New Zealand Dance 28: 22, 24.
6. 2011 Video Life. Performances devised in collaboration with video and installation artists Ko Nakajima and Kentaro Taki, poet Yutaka Kusaba, composer/musicians Phil Dadson, Ivan Mrsic, and John Bell, performers Moana Nepia, Elise Chan, Sarah Iwaskow, Kristian Larsen, and Moata McNamara Mitai-Ngatai. Auckland Festival held at St. Paul St. Gallery, Auckland.
7. 2011 Maungauika Trilogy. Video installation, Wellington City Gallery, Wellington.
8. 2009 Curator of Ka Mau Te Wehi – Conversations in Māori dance. St. Paul St. Gallery, Auckland, 4–20 June.ター
