Pacific Arts Aotearoa

Dr Lana Lopesi (MNZM) is an Assistant Professor in the department of Indigenous Race and Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon. There she teaches across her research areas of Pacific Islander studies, Indigenous feminisms and contemporary art.

She is the author of False Divides (2018) and Bloody Woman (2021), which was longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Lana is co-editor of Towards a Grammar of Race- In Aotearoa New Zealand (2022) and Pacific Spaces- Translations and Transmutations (2022).

Lana was Editor-in-Chief for the Creative New Zealand Pacific Art Legacy Project, a digital-first Pacific art history told from the perspective of the artists. Lana is also co-editor of the Marinade- Aotearoa Journal of Moana Art. Previously Lana was Arts Editor Metro Magazine (2020) and at The Pantograph Punch she was Editor-in-Chief (2017-2019) and Interim Director (2021), and now is a Pantograph Punch board member. Before that, she was Founding Editor of #500words (2012-2017) and Editor of Design Assembly (2018).

Lana received her PhD in 2021 from the Auckland University of Technology, with a thesis titled Moana Cosmopolitan Imaginaries- Toward an Emerging Theory of Moana Art.

Previously Lana was part of a global Indigenous Curatorium who first formed to curate the exhibition The Commute at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2018) with subsequent projects including Layover at Artspace Auckland (2019) followed by Transits and Returns at Vancouver Art Gallery (2019).

Lana was honoured in the 2023 New Year’s Honours, becoming a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts.