Dorell Ben - PhD Candidate, Researcher & Artist
Dorell Ben is a Rotuman Gujarati PhD candidate, researcher and artist from Fiji. In 2020, she moved to Australia to conduct “a doctoral research project on the narratives of Pacific tattoo renaissances of Pacific women and other art forms that emerge from these tattoo cultures” at Griffith University. With rapt curiosity, Ben explores Pacific literature and art forms with the aspiration of recording past, present and future iterations of sacred cultural stories. In modern spheres, these stories have the power to anchor people in their origins as they traverse multitudinous timelines and dimensions.
Ben believes that our stories have endured, and they exist in ancient as well as contemporary expressions of identity. Throughout her research, Ben contemplates Pacific art forms and how they translate to Rotuman tattoos. She ruminates on Pacific literary texts and how we can rewrite our stories in nuanced ways. By collecting reference points for ancestral knowledge, Ben pieces together evidence of the oceans we have already charted.
However, Ben is also interested in understanding how our cultures will evolve with us. Constructing her own texts and mahi toi allows her to explore what that might look like. Ben writes fictional short stories that interlace aspects of Rotuman spirituality and her personal Rotuman perspective. Her artwork reimagines Rotuman cultural tattoo motifs at fresh coordinates. Drawing on these narratives, Ben hopes to document the complex, intersectional worlds that Pacific people experience.
With earnest enthusiasm, Ben unlatches portals to matauranga that challenges existing resignations. Unflinching, she acquaints herself with her culture and identity so others have a place to begin their passage. As a researcher and an artist, Ben seeks to preserve Pacific taonga by acknowledging them as living in the present.
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Matauranga - knowledge, wisdom, understanding, skill
Mahi toi - artwork
Taonga - treasure, anything prized
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Photographer: Joe Ruckli
Location: QAGOMA
Artwork/Syaw - Fish Net: Regina Pilawuk Wilson