Beyond the ‘emerging’: Two Pacific artists who are redefining success

Two Pacific performing artists are being recognised for reshaping Aotearoa New Zealand’s creative landscape.

Leki Jackson-Bourke, a multidisciplinary theatre maker and co-founder of Strictly Brown, and Aloali’i Tapu, an interdisciplinary dancer, director, and co-founder of Ta’alili, are recipients of the 2026 FAME Mid-Career Awards.

Each receives $20,000. The awards are administered by the Performing Arts Network New Zealand (PANNZ), FAME Trust, and Acorn Foundation.

Jackson-Bourke, currently touring Hawai’i with Black Grace dance company, says the award arrives in the middle of a relentless work cycle.

“I was in the middle of work mode, so I couldn't really stop to celebrate and enjoy it,” he tells Island Time. “I just had to keep moving because ultimately we don't make work to try and win awards.

“It’s really nice to be acknowledged and I'm super grateful for my community. I'm a little bit overwhelmed.”

Watch Leki Jackson-Bourke's full interview below.

For Tapu, the recognition is as more about the collective than the individual. He co-founded the arts collective Ta’alili with his wife, Tori Manley-Tapu, and recently launched the Undaground Fono pop-up school alongside the transformative creatives of CONJAH.

For him, the award is about thriving as a collective of collaborators.

“I was grateful to receive it because I also look after a lot of my friends and artists who are not looked after,” Tapu tells PMN News. “It reaches other contributors and collaborators of ours.”

Aloali'i Tapu. Photo/Supplied

Tapu, who earned Germany’s prestigious Der Faust Award for Best Dancer in 2016, also sees institutional funding gaps in New Zealand.

“We essentially just run our own things because we have one funding body in the country,” he says. “Every other country's got like state funding, their national funding, as well as local, that can prop up the arts.

“New Zealand is, I feel, quite far behind when it comes to supporting artists who are really trying to make art and, and stage.”

Both Tapu and Jackson-Bourke have built prolific careers.

Jackson-Burke has worked with Massive Theatre Company, Kila Kokonut Krew, Auckland Theatre Company, Silo Theatre, Sau E Siva, and ASB Polyfest. He created Three Star Nation, a large-scale Niuean digital documentation project. He has produced multiple sold-out theatre shows.

Tapu’s work with Ta’alili has been presented internationally, such as Aftermath (Salzburg, Austria) and MANU MALO (Hamburg, Germany). In 2024, he launched ETENA FEST to bring communities together through creative arts.

Yet, both artists challenge the label “mid-career”.

"I’ve been referred to as an emerging artist for quite a while,” Jackson-Bourke says. “I feel like I’ve already emerged. No one ever tells you, ‘Oh, you’re finished being an emerging artist’."

Tapu agrees, critiquing industry reliance on degrees or mainstream recognition.

“I've been blessed in a way where alongside our collective, we forged our way through some of those systems and ladder type vibes within the dance sector in particular,” he said. “Because, one, they weren’t a community, two, they didn’t really care about each other.”

He advocates for “horizontal leadership”, where every performer is a co-creator rather than a tool in the commercial hierarchy.

For Jackson-Bourke, the next phase is about sustainability and community wellbeing. After seeing high rates of burnout where artists prioritise community over self-care, he intends to focus inward to “use the arts to help in health and nutrition for our people”.