Koloa: Plastic Pasifika

Warm Pacific greetings to everyone, we are Vain Creative Ltd. and with this project Koloa: Plastic Pasifika, we are reframing Koloa within the diaspora.

We want to make new creative media available to our community. Your support is needed to help us buy our very own 3D printers!

Our Story

We are a team of four inter-disciplinary Pasifika designers utilising design as a tool to innovate our va, based in Wellington. Vain Creative launched in 2020 and, we have worked on various projects ranging from social media content, branding, logos, websites and videography. 

We have a dual purpose: we want to re-imagine design with a Pasifika-centred lens and push our community forward with future technologies.

Our purpose leads us to our Boosted X Moana project: Koloa.

Our Project: Koloa

Koloa in Tongan translates to ‘treasure or cultural treasures’. Koloa encompasses the many traditional cultural artifacts that have been (and are still being) created to this day. 

With this project, we want to reframe the notion of Koloa within the context of the Pasifika diaspora here in Aotearoa. As a new generation of Pasifika people whose lived experiences and environments are different from our ancestors, we want to tell our stories/experiences through digital craft. 

Using 3D printing as a medium, we want to create new forms of Koloa that are authentic to us.

Our Plan

With the 3D printers, we aim to work within our communities/schools to collect and share our lived experiences through creative workshops.  We want to share our knowledge, encourage and inspire our Pasifika communities to create their own Koloa,  embedding stories in new  3D forms and materials.

Your Donation

Donating to our Koloa project will allow us to purchase 3D printers which will support our dreams of pushing our creativity with and for our community. These machines will give us the tools to run 3D printing workshops, create installations and hold exhibitions. 

We appreciate and are thankful for any (big or small) financial contribution towards us purchasing 3D printers in setting up Koloa, without all your support we wouldn’t be where we are today!