when we return

This tool of Sāmoan village politics brings perspective and harmony between the physical self, spirit, and mind. According to Researcher Tui.A.T.T. Tupuola Tufuga Efi’s work on Sāmoan Cosmology and Mythology, Moe Manatunatu rituals were often performed in nature, in solitude, as prayers and meditations (Anapogi).

when we return emerges from this exploration, a process of retreating to the forest where Ulutupu’s fanau workshop spirituality through their own perspectives. Children hold direct access to spiritual realms, and this project centres their curiosity and engagement with our environment.

Each evolving chapter hovers between daydreaming and memory, unsure of what is recollection and what is invention. Ulutupu’s practice has long centred on daydreaming, conjuring from imagination—yet his past works have been distorted memories. The work moves between expression and documentation, treating moe manatunatu as both method and subject, producing a video work that is poetic and violent.

when we return is not about arriving or finding  answers. It is about returning to a self in negotiation, loading, unable to be fixed.