Dr Adriana Māhanga Lear, AKA Ace [she/they], is a queer Tongan-Australian interdisciplinary sound and visual artist, musician, composer/producer and researcher in decolonisation, Indigenous self-determination and social justice.

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. 

Adriana employs the ritual of fakatakatōfā—awakening chiefs and royalty with the fangufangu (bamboo nose-flute)— as a metaphor for (re)awakening ancient knowledges and practices, by walking backwards into the future. Working across sound, music, photography, print, video, sculpture, and installation, Adriana (re)awakens Tongan concepts and practices of ongo (sound), relating to mate (death), putu (mourning), hoa (relationality) and fonua (people and place). She engages concepts of mana (spiritual power) and tapu (social tools of protection, prohibition and inhibition relating to the sacred) to perform an embodied ‘re-sounding’ of the archive that interrogates the colonial legacies of Eurocentrism and heteropatriarchy on faiva fasi (performance art of music) and adjacent Tongan art forms.

Adriana’s practice is underpinned by the Indigenous Tongan (and Moana Oceanian) Tā-Vā (Time-Space) Philosophy of Art, of which she is a leading author. She has developed new Indigenous philosophical, theoretical and methodological frameworks for Tongan and Moana Oceanian music and sound research, and composition, performance and installation practice.

Adriana’s work is held in collections including Sydney Powerhouse Museum and has been exhibited in Australia and Aotearoa NZ, with an upcoming showcase in Hawai’i. She 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, which was commissioned by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.

Since 2019, Adriana has been employed as a Sessional Academic at the University of Wollongong, teaching across Bachelor of Creative Arts course subjects including Music and Culture (CAMS204/304), Creative Research (CACS304), Creative Communities (CACS200), Critical Thinking (CACS300), and Professional Practice (CACS301).

CV

EXHIBITIONS

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

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

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

COLLECTIONS

2025 The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia.  

RESIDENCIES

2025 Brand X Multi Arts Residency, City of Sydney Creative Studios, Australia, June 2025.

2016    Studios Switch Artist Residency, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia, Apr–Jul 2016.      

AWARDS

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

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

LATEST 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/

speaker, programs

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

2025 Guest presenter for ‘HDR Seminar’, Queensland Conservatorium of Music, 8 May 2025.

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 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

Select Research Publications

CO-EDITOR
‘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 2021.

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

AUTHOR

‘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, 2024.

‘Talamuiaki, Epilogue’ in ‘Alatini, MHM, Sipu, TSFKF and Māhina, HFM (eds.), Material Art of Noseflutemaking & Performance Art of Nosefluteplaying: The Revival of Neardead Arts. Aotearoa: Kula-‘Uli Publishing 2024.

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

CO-AUTHOR
‘Sino, 'Ilo, Moe Ongo: Body, Knowing, and Feeling’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i 2021, pp. 12–94.
‘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.
‘Siueli 'oe Pasifiki: Jewel of the Pacific—A Sung Poetry of Praise and Rivalry’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i 2021, pp. 224–246.
‘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 2021, pp. 247–270.
‘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 2021, pp. 271–301.
‘Faiva Lova'a'alo: Performance Art of Rowing’, Pacific Studies: Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1/2, Brigham Young University, Hawai'i 2021, pp. 302–328. ‘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>.

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