You are warmly invited to join us for a reading by the artist within the exhibition Koe tenga tete to tete utu pe koia.

For this event, Kalisolaite ‘Uhila will read the hymn “Oku tau teu 'a e ngoue” (we are preparing the garden/field), within the exhibition setting. It is one of the most well-known and widely sung Christian hymns in Tonga, which relates to the broader themes in the exhibition, of community and resilience, and that we reap the seeds we sow.

The hymn speaks about the commitment to a path, to sacrifice, and to persevering through hardship. The imagery of ngoue (garden) is significant in Tongan culture: traditionally, tending gardens/fields is central to subsistence farming, community cooperation, and social obligation. In the hymn, this agricultural imagery is a metaphor for Christian service, spiritual labour and spiritual harvest, as well as community.

In Kalisolaite ‘Uhila’s exhibition, the hymn becomes a resonant bridge between past and present – between the orchard and the gallery space, between physical labour and artistic practice. Recited within the space, the hymn gathers the exhibition’s threads of memory, migration, kinship, growth and endurance into a shared moment of listening. As his voice fills the room, the garden is no longer only a field to be tended, but a space of collective reflection. A space where what has been sown through years of work, sacrifice, and resilience continues to bear fruit.