Adriana Māhanga Lear (b. 1987)

Dr Adriana Māhanga Lear, AKA Ace [she/they], is a queer Tongan-Australian contemporary interdisciplinary artist working across photography, print, video, sculpture, installation, and sound. Adriana is also a musician, composer/producer, and researcher/academic. Adriana’s practice centres on decoloniality and Indigenous self-determination within and across Moana Oceania arts.

Adriana was recently awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong, for her thesis Ongo (sounding/hearing/feeling), mate (death), fonua (people and place) and tā-vā (time-space): new foundations for Tongan music composition, performance and sound art and accompanying exhibition Fafangu: to awaken.

Adriana holds ancestral ties to Tu’anuku, Vava’u and Vaipoa, Niuatoputapu, and the matapule title Pā’utu-’O-Vava’u-Lahi, bestowed by esteemed Tongan professor Hūfanga-He-Akó-Moe-Lotu Dr ʻŌkusitino Māhina. 

CV

Education

2024 Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Arts), University of Wollongong, Australia    

2018 Bachelor of Creative Arts Honours (Class I, 91.5%), University of Wollongong, Australia    

2007 Bachelor of Arts in Communications, University of Technology Sydney, Australia   

EXHIBITIONS

2025 Fafangu: to Awaken, solo exhibition, Māngere Arts Centre - Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, Aotearoa, Feb–Mar 2025.

2025 Fafangu: to Awaken, solo exhibition, Wollongong Art Gallery, Australia, Jul–Sept 2025.

2024 Cunning Revived, group exhibition, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Australia, Nov 2024–Feb 2025.

2024 Fafangu: to Awaken, solo exhibition, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia, Apr–Jul 2024. https://www.casulapowerhouse.com/whats-on/exhibition-fafangu-to-awaken

2018    Wayfinders group exhibition, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia, Oct–Nov 2018.  https://www.casulapowerhouse.com/whats-on/exhibitions2/2018-exhibitions/oceania-rising        

2018    Dualism & the Politics of Belonging, solo exhibition, University of Wollongong Project Gallery, Australia, Nov 2018. https://www.uow.edu.au/events/2018/121-dualism-and-the-politics-of-belonging.php     

2016    Studios Switch, artist-in-residence, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia, Apr–Jul 2016.      

2014    Bleeding Earth, solo video screening, 107 Projects, Sydney, Australia.  

COLLECTIONS

2025 The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia.  

AWARDS & COMMISSIONS

2024 Fafangu: to Awaken exhibition commisioned by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia

2024 Fishers Ghost Award, finalist, Campbeltown Arts Centre, Australia

2019 Fishers Ghost Award, finalist, Campbeltown Arts Centre, Australia

2016    Orphan Black, synced music artist, BBC America, Canada.

2016    Dark Matter, synced music artist, Prodigy Pictures Inc, Canada.

media

2025 ‘From the Fangufangu to the panpipes — re-awakening the sounds of the Pacific’, ABC Culture Compass, 14 Feb 2025.

2024 ‘Adriana Māhanga Lear by Elli Walsh’, Artist Profile Issue 69 (Nov 2024 - Jan 2025). https://artistprofile.com.au/in-this-issue/

PANELS + PRESENTATIONS

2025 Vā Moana Pacific Spaces, 26 March 2025, Tāmaki Auckland, Aoteaora NZ.

2024 Adriana Māhanga Lear and Nathan mudyi Sentence 2024, No Space is Empty: First Nations creatives in conversation about embodying the radical return to Indigenous world-making practices - Sydney Design Week, panelist, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (Powerhouse Museum), Castlehill, NSW, Australia, 14 September 2024.  https://powerhouse.com.au/program/family-day-building-worlds

2024, 2022 Make a Manifesto - Sydney Opera House BUILD: Tertiary, workshop producer/facilitator, Sydney Opera House, Australia. https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/learn/sydney-opera-house-build

2024 Creative Sessions - Culture Mix Festival, event MC and feature music artist, Wollongong Music Lounge / Town Hall, Australia. https://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/council/news/articles/february-2024/culture-mix-returns-2024

2024 Getting it Right? Decoloniality and Culturally Safe Practice in the Arts - Creative Dialogues, panel convenor, Wollongong City Council, Australia. https://open.spotify.com/episode/10da7o83DlrNyvjYqgK7dB?si=cCQmXsK0RVaWYsJkVV3FPQ

2020 ‘Arts’ of Moana Oceania Tok Stori, guest co-presenter with Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu 'Ōkusitino Māhina, Lagi-Maama Academy & Consultancy and Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi Arts Regional Trust, Aotearoa. https://www.lagi-maama.com/arts-of-moana-oceania

ACADEMIA + RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

2025 Guest lecturer for ‘Contemporary Pacific’, Auckland University of Technology, 28 March 2025.

2025 Guest presenter for ‘Ethnomusicology Postgraduate Seminar’, University of Auckland, 28 March 2025.

2024-2019 Sessional Academic, University of Wollongong - Faculty of The Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities,

Subjects: CACS304 Creative Research; CACS300 Critical Thinking; CACS200 Creative Communities; CAMS204/304 Music and Culture; CACS301 Professional Practice

CO-EDITOR:

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, Māhina-Tuai, KU, Vaka, SL, and Ka’ili (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako), T'O (eds.) 2021, ‘Atamai-Loto, Moe Faka'ofa'ofa-Aonga: Tongan Tā-Vā Time-Space Philosophy of Mind-Heart and Beauty-Utility’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i.

Read online: https://lir.byuh.edu/index.php/pacific/issue/view/293

CO-AUTHOR:

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, Māhina-Tuai, KU, Vaka, SL, Ka’ili (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako), T‘O and Māhina (Hūfanga-He-Akò-Moe-Lotu), 'Ō 2021, ‘Sino, 'Ilo, Moe Ongo: Body, Knowing, and Feeling’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i, pp. 12–94.

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, Māhina-Tuai, KU, Vaka, SL, Ka’ili, T‘O (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako) and Māhina (Hūfanga-He-Akò-Moe-Lotu), 'Ō 2021, ‘Tongan Hoa: Inseparable Yet Indispensable Pairs/Binaries’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i, pp. 96–141.

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, Māhina, M'O, Māhina-Tuai, KU and Māhina (Hūfanga-He-Akò-Moe-Lotu), 'Ō 2021, ‘Sio FakaTonga 'ae 'Aati FakaTonga: Tongan Views of Tongan Arts’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i, pp. 142–162.

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, Vaka, SL, Ka'ili (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako), T'O and Māhina (Hūfanga-He-Akò-Moe-Lotu),'Ō 2021, ‘Siueli 'oe Pasifiki: Jewel of the Pacific—A Sung Poetry of Praise and Rivalry’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, pp. 224–246. 

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi) AM, Vaka, SL, Ka'ili (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako), T'O and Māhina (Hūfanga-He-Akò-Moe-Lotu), 'Ō 2021, ‘Tuaikaepau: ‘Slow-but-Sure’—A Sung and Danced Poetry of Tragedy’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i, pp. 247–270.

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, Vaka, SL, Ka'ili (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako), T'O and Māhina (Hūfanga-He-Akò-Moe-Lotu), 'Ō 2021, ‘Lofia, Koe Kumi Tu'i: The Search for a King—A Sung and Danced Poetry of Tragedy’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i, pp. 271–301.

Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, Vaka, SL, Ka'ili (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako), T'O and Māhina (Hūfanga-He-Akò-Moe-Lotu), 'Ō 2021, ‘Faiva Lova'a'alo: Performance Art of Rowing’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i, pp. 302–328.

Mulgan, T, Enright, S, Grix, M, Jayasuriya, U, Ka'ili (Maui-TāVā-He-Ako), T'O, Lear (Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi), AM, … Watene, K. 2021, ‘Charting just futures for Aotearoa New Zealand: philosophy for and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic’, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 51(sup1), S167–S178. <https://doi-org.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/10.1080/03036758.2021.1896559>.

AUTHOR:

Lear, AM 2024, ‘Ongo (sounding/hearing/feeling), mate (death), fonua (people and place) and tā-vā (time-space): new foundations for Tongan music composition, performance and sound art’, PhD thesis, University of Wollongong. (forthcoming)

Lear, AM 2024, ‘Talamuiaki, Epilogue’ in ‘Alatini, MHM, Sipu, TSFKF and Māhina, HFM (eds.), Tufunga Ngaohifangufangu & Faiva Ififangufangu, Material Art of Noseflutemaking & Performance Art of Nosefluteplaying: Koe Fakamo‘ui ‘oe ‘Aati Ofimate, The Revival of Neardead Arts, Kula-‘Uli Publishing, Aotearoa.

Lear, AM 2018, ‘A Study of Traditional Tongan Music Using the TĀ-VĀ (Time-Space) Theory of Art’, Honours thesis, University of Wollongong.