Te Moana Meridian Conference is the ongoing public program counterpart to the experimental opera Te Moana Meridian, which centers around a speculative United Nations General Assembly Resolution to formally relocate the international prime meridian from the UK to Te Moananui-ā-Kiwa/the South Pacific Ocean. Te Moana Meridian Conference submits the UN policy proposal to rigorous critical debate by a diverse range of thought leaders across the fields of art, culture, science, politics, history, and advocacy. This event at PICA will be the third such convening, following an inaugural conference held in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2022 with Artspace and Vā Moana Pacific Spaces. 

As Te Moana Meridian Conference continues to bring in fresh perspectives to collectively map, consider, and network the vast political, cultural, and technological issues that transect the prime meridian, the project seeks to build the deliberative body necessary to explore the question: How can we construct a means of collectively calibrating time and space that genuinely benefits the global commons?

HISTORY

2022 @ Artspace Aotearoa (Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa/New Zealand). Hosted by Artspace in partnership with Vā Moana Pacific Spaces Research Cluster.

  • Featuring: Dr. Albert Refiti, Pita Turei, Sonny Nataielu, Emily Parr, Dina Jezdic, Dr. Dan Hikuroa, Tiaki Kerei, Rhonda Tibble, Anisha Shankar, Janine Randerson, David Garcia, Dr. David Hall, Sam Hamilton.

  • Thanks to Auckland University of Technology.

2023 @ Oregon Contemporary for Converge 45 Triennial (Portland, Oregon, so-called USA)

  • Featuring: Dr. Radhika Natarajan, Grace Kook-Anderson, Dr. David Rosenberg, & Sam Hamilton.

2024 @ Portland Institute for Contemporary Art for TBA Festival.

  • Featuring: Christina Lara (Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde); Dr. Lana Lopesi (Assistant Professor of Indigenous Race and Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon); Bogosi Sekhukhuni; and Hunter Shobe (Associate Professor of Geography, Portland State University); Subashini Ganesan-Forbes; Grace Kook-Anderson; moderated by Jason N. Le.

  • Thanks to the Regional Arts & Cultures Council in Oregon.

2025 @ SFU Contemporary Art Museum (St. Petersburg, FL, so-called USA).

  • Featuring: Christian Viveros-Fauné & Sam Hamilton

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Te Moana Meridian (video installation and exhibition works)

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Te Moana Meridian (essay & policy proposal)