At Asia TOPA Aunties are superior.
Throughout our 2025 program there is an undoubted presence of art aunties, be they chosen or blood-related.
Aunties are the cultural bosses of our time– whether through sneaking you your first glass of wine, or schooling you in how to stand up against the world, to be an aunty is to be an agent of love and freedom. We wanted to take a moment to uplift just a few of our precious art aunties in the festival.
Whether it’s food or material-based practices, the concept of “Aunties” and women as bearers of culture is a common phenomenon across the Asia-Pacific region. Through familial and community connections, knowledge and skills are handed down in the hopes that future generations will preserve them. However, as time passes on, migration patterns take flight and generations shift in their values, the ways these practices transfer require a much more complex web of community-based systems.
We speak to Asia TOPA artists Moira Tirtha from Nongkrong, Suzanne Tamaki from Pacific Sisters and textile enthusiast Manjari Singh about how ancestral connections and traditions are upheld and evolve in the modern age.
Existing between tradition and the complexities of contemporary life
Moira Tirtha’s relationship with their Indonesian heritage influences their approach to Nongkrong.
“By being diaspora, I adopted a lot of Australian culture. I felt like I was something in-between Australian and Indonesian. So, I think a lot of the cultural identity I resonate with transcends a very specific cultural route,” explains Tirtha.
Their event Sarapan was inspired by breakfasts held in sports centres called GORs (GelanggangOlahraga) in Indonesia, but it was a matter of figuring out how to contextualise the vibrancy of the experience in Melbourne.
“There's heaps of gerobaks or street food carts that get set up, and there are always buskers playing or gamelan playing. It's taking a lot of those cultural memories and emulating that with the talent and communities that exist here”, says Tirtha.
Cultural connections can also transcend international barriers. Manjari Singh grew up in India, but has lived in Australia for two decades. Since completing her fashion degree, she continues to expand her skills, professing a love for dyeing, printing, weaving and embroidery. She also teaches Indian embroidery through Laneway Learning.
“I keep exploring new things. I keep talking to my friends and colleagues back in India as well, and there's a lot of influence in craft and art based on the tribal regions and the culture of the people practicing that,” says Singh.
The role of community and relatives is instrumental when preserving tribal practices. Suzanne Tamaki from Pacific Sisters had an urban upbringing in Aotearoa, which meant visiting her marae (Tribal meeting place for ceremony and traditional protocols) and seeing her extended family has helped preserve her connection to Māori culture.
“My father is Māori [and] my mother is Irish/English. I grew up in Wellington…but every Christmas and holidays I would go home to where my dad is from, Kawerau, which is probably like 99% Māori. I was really blessed because I grew up with my cousins…[and] having an understanding of the marae,” says Tamaki.
Passing on tradition the Aunty way
Traditions can be passed on within families, however your broader village, tribe and community are also key. When these connections become untethered and there is pressure to fit within a western context, preserving knowledge and practice can become fraught. This is where women and aunties, come in.
“[Aunties] are the most important members of our community. I don’t think anything would happen without aunties. They are the ones who keep culture alive, the people who fight for traditions but also the people who’ve evolved traditions. I think they're the beacons of culture,” says Nongkrong’s Tirtha.
According to Tirtha, in Indonesian culture, women often hold domestic roles, which is which is how food and recipes are often passed on.
“They nourish us with food, but they also nourish us with connection to “home”, our culture, and our ancestry: the cultural knowledge of the generations that have come before us,” says Tirtha.
For Singh, her grandmothers played an important role in her sewing methodology.
“My paternal grandma, she was really a big stickler for traditions. She knew that our children are sort of moving away from it, and you know modernising and going out and leaving home, but she would make sure every time she's meeting us, she would pass on something or the other to me,” Singh shares.
“They sort of hold the torch for us, and if they've been able to pass it on to us, then we are able to pass on to our children,” she continues.
Within Indian culture, the role of women in preserving craft has been under acknowledged in written text and stories that have been told.
“If we look into history, we've only been reading about things that men have done. And when I study all these traditional crafts and techniques, especially in India, you can actually see that they've all been carried forward by women, and still practiced by women,” says Singh.
However, it often takes a village.
“It's never a work of one person…it is definitely a…tribal and community practice which keeps the traditions alive,” says Singh.
Tribes are also important within Māori culture. For Tamaki, the Pacific Sisters adopt a similar collective approach, with members Indigenous to Aotearoa, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Niue and Cook Islands.
“We Pacific Sisters work together, we live together. We've looked after each other's kids growing up, and now our kids are travelling with us. So, it's that thing about generational legacies and passing it on,” says Tamaki.
Tamaki describes a Māori pōwhiri, a ceremony where people are welcomed onto the marae by wahine (woman) who is the kaikaranga (the woman or women who make the ceremonial call to visitors onto a marae). She shares a story about a tangihanga (funeral) she attended.
“I went to a tangi up north…not one of us knew how to do the karanga [ceremonial call]. We're all these city Māori women, but we don't know how to do this traditional role. You have to go home, you have to be in those spaces to learn those things from these women.”
Cultural evolution creates a revolution
Through generations, cultural practice has needed to adapt to absorb changing community needs, contexts and influences. As they're adopted, historical traditions are reshaped, generating new meaning.
According to Tirtha, this is the case for Indonesian food offerings in Australia.
“Some young chefs have embraced Australian culture, they're more into contemporary or modern interpretations, or aren't as bound to tradition per se,” explains Tirtha.
However, including traditional performances such as a local gamelan group and traditional dancers in events like Sarapan, helps Indonesian elders feel more comfortable in these spaces, in order to foster local community connections.
“Often times, you know, these cultural events are pretty limited to young, cool, 'art scene' kids. Our [Collingwood] event had this intergenerational participation. Aunties showed up, who you wouldn’t ever see at a doof. Breakfast…naturally invites that family atmosphere,” says Tirtha.
Tamaki also has her own twist on traditional cultural outfits. Weaving is a really strong women's practice in Aotearoa, and when developing costumes, Tamaki uses domestic craft products introduced by the British — such as buttons, wool, embroidery, putting doilies and ribbons — to reinterpret and reflect on colonial intervention on Māori people and women.
“This is actually a skirt, but it's made out of [covid] masks,” she explains, showing me different garments adorned by mannequins surrounding her.
“This is like a piupiu [skirt] that's made out of wool. They're [traditionally] made out of flax.”
Singh also shares a similar passion in working with fabric, in particular traditional Indian textiles. This will be a key aspect of her event during Bread, Circuses and Home, teaching audiences embroidery techniques and how to upcycle existing clothing they own.
“If we can just do a little bit from our side by not buying too much, but maybe…giving it a new look with a little bit of embroidery… it's good for the earth,” says Singh.
All in all, the role that aunties play cannot be underestimated.
“There's a lot of craft that has actually sort of disappeared, not just in India, but like all over the world. And if we know something, and if we pass that knowledge on to even a handful of people, I feel that it will sort of live on and we won't lose it as we progress,” says Singh.
