The foundation of our artistic and professional collaboration lies in our friendship, which has flourished through the time we've dedicated — both individually and together — to contemplating the integrity of our work and its purpose. As a white Anglo-European creator, AM knows there is no absolutely ethical way for them to do this work, and we are continuously reflecting on how to navigate as well as possible the vastly differential economic, racial, and social capital and power held between diverse Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. All material in Oceanic Refractions has been recorded consensually, in consultation with, and invitation by, the speakers and environments. We are explicitly dedicated to anti-colonial approaches and the centralisation of Indigenous knowledge and relational values. Our actions and protocols as Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists are outlined in the Oceanic Refractions project philosophy.

Following overseas exhibitions, Oceanic Refractions will be brought back to Fiji. We are fostering partnerships with local institutions, including a program involving skill-sharing and cultural exchange activities. We hope to do the same in other Pacific Island countries. It is crucial for Oceanic Refractions to extend beyond formalised and exclusive arts spaces. Creativity knows no bounds, and we firmly believe that the right to enjoy, contribute to, and engage with the arts belongs to everyone.

We are setting up a trust with any future income from Oceanic Refractions exhibitions. Guided by the Advisory Group, this trust will support workshops, dialogues, and collaborations with communities and creators in the Pacific Islands.

How We Choose to Work and Why 

Our mission is to transmit testimonies of Pacific people and their environments responding to anthropogenic ecosystemic crises.

Our commitments include to:

• Create a community-led trust to distribute income from commissions to Pacific communities;
• Equitably pay collaborators for their time and showcase their contributions, prioritising Pacific Islands-based creators at every opportunity;
• Archive recordings in their countries and with their communities of origin;
• Bring the installation to the Pacific region with an emphasis on engaging long-term with communities and schools through workshops, skill-sharing, and creative opportunities.

We work closely with our Advisory Group to ensure we are always accountable to Pacific communities. Our project philosophy captures how we commit to working based on our reflections on methods, co-design, listening, and emphasising Indigenous knowledge and perspectives.

Informed by our individual and collective experiences, we align ourselves with people, places, and communities that share Oceanic Refractions’ ethos and values. Conversely, we refrain from engaging with institutions and actors that have shown a lack of good faith. Recognising the extractive systems of aid-funded development, arts, and academia, of which we have extensive experience, we make a deliberate choice to demote these spaces in our work.

As a collective, our shared principles shape why and how we work together. These principles guide how we relate to one another and how we also hope to relate to project partners. They also reflect the prioritisation of integrity and care in our working methods.

Centering Indigenous Knowledge and Practices

We are working with a variety of cultural materials that hold great significance and need to be treated respectfully. We view the materials we are working with as being a part of the places they are taken from, containing spiritual and emotional attributes and connections. We do not use these materials lightly. Acknowledging the immeasurable value of the recordings and the contributions of the Pacific people featured in our work, this endeavour incorporates the informed consent of its participants and the guidance and advice of Pacific practitioners of art, culture, and development for a generative experience.

What this looks like in practice:

• We defer to Indigenous partners' perspectives and approaches. We consult with and inform ourselves how best to work with the materials we have. This involves ongoing conversations with community members. If this is in conflict with Western perspectives and approaches, we are open to finding ways to navigate conflicting viewpoints where possible. However, our priority is to amplify the Indigenous perspective;
• We consult with Indigenous partners and collaborators to ensure we have consent and permission to gather material, to make material public, and the use of any material is aligned with community protocols;
• We commit to being aware of the ways in which extractive systems have shaped our outlooks and our relationships. We commit to continual open dialogue with each other, our Advisory Board, and our community partners in this process;
• We acknowledge the multiple realities our Indigenous project partners and collaborators hold and will create pathways for clear communication around mutually agreed expectations, timelines, and needs;
• We will not foreground non-Indigenous presentation partners or funders in our public presentation materials. We will work with non-Indigenous project partners to find alternative ways to respectfully acknowledge their input.

Mutuality and Circular Economy

A key priority of the collective is that when we produce work about places and communities, the works and resources produced by the work are returned to those places and communities in different ways. This is important to ensure that the work comes to rest in its rightful home and that the communities it draws from are included in the economies the works generate.

What this looks like in practice:

• We are respectful of the land that we’re on;
• We redistribute resources through opportunities, bringing in and working with Pacific partners at every possible scale;
• We pay project partners at rates equitable to our own;
• All recordings and material will be properly attributed as desired by project partners;
• We work with community Elders and organisations to return the artistic material to the lands they were taken from through national and local archives;
• We make the material free and available for educational resources without constraint;
• We work with communities to make the material relevant to them in the ways they see fit;
• We prioritise building long-term relationships of trust and reciprocity and will follow Pacific protocols for engagement;
• We work with a cultural Advisory Board and will receive ongoing communication and advice from them;
• We establish a long-term financial trust guided by the Advisory Board with money incoming from the presentation of work distributed to Pacific communities directly without the burden of reporting.

Clarity of Communication

In order to minimise Western capitalist cultures of urgency and stress, we practise clear and direct communication. We do so within our team and with project partners.

Honouring Different Capacities and Disability Justice

As collaborators in a team with various chronic illnesses and disabilities, we honour our interdependence and co-existence within systems of care. We prioritise rest and pacing; everyone has different capacities and needs. We treat each other with grace and dignity. In our work relations, we seek to transform rather than avoid mistakes and conflict. We honour non-conventional ways of collaborating that are not based on urgency, demand, and stress.