a – wake – (e) nd
What does it mean to be a good Pacific woman? Audrey doesn’t care.
In her third collection a – wake – (e)nd, acclaimed poet Audrey Brown-Pereira turns a lens to her own life, transforming a mid-life crisis into opportunity. Set against an unkind pandemic, a Pacific evolving revolving, and a deteriorating environment, truth and lies play side-by-side in a book that breaks convention in joyful, energetic verse. By pulling at the threads of her life, the narrator finds herself asserting independence, tasting delicious freedom … and wanting more.
This is a PDF format copy.
“These poems dance in liminal spaces, resist devolution, and circumnavigate conventions. A captivating exploration of transformation and self-design.” – Serie Barford, Author of Sleeping with Stones (Anahera Press)
Cover artwork by Serene Hodgman. First published in print format by Saufoi Press, NZ.
Only $10 USD (approx currency conversion).
Afakasi Woman
2019 Winner of a NZ Storylines Notable Book Award.
2019 Finalist in the NZ Book Awards, Young Adult Fiction.
A collection of short stories from Samoa, by Lani Wendt Young. “The joys, the trials, the tragedies, and the sensibilities of being a woman of Samoa are highlighted in this superb collection. Each story is brimming with emotion, offering a unique, engrossing glimpse into the lives of women of the Pacific, as Young takes readers from tears of laughter to tears of sorrow from one story to the next.”
Only $10 USD.
Cry Me A Moana
My sisters and I live different lives than we used to.
I watch their online stories traveling Europe and dancing at music festivals.
We discuss pending court cases and struggles of self-employment.
The days of desperately seeking babysitters, carpooling for school events, and borrowing from each other to pay the rent are gone.
We are less compliant and more calm.
We are more heartbroken and less cooperative.
We are smarter and deeper.
That’s what this painting is about.
Letting go. Floating.
I’ve always loved Ella Fitzgerald singing Cry Me A River.
The lyrics say it all. Cry me a river, I cried a river over you.
But the version that goes with this painting is Cry Me A River by Julie London, Live at the Americana Hotel, New York 1964. It’s breathtakingly beautiful.
So this painting is titled Cry Me A Moana and captures a similar sentiment as the song.
(Moana is a word that means ocean in several Pacific Island languages.)
Five brown-skinned full-bodied women floating in water.
They are reaching and twisting.
Their respectable white dresses become translucent, and the flower leis of honour are drifting away, and the women don’t care.
They float above fish skeletons and remnants of the past.
I hope it resonates. I want to make art that people feel, not only look at.
Daughters of the Waters
This print is from a series of three large paintings by Nikki Mariner, titled, ‘No Woman is an Island’.
Lady Fingers | Misiluki
- I was staring at banana trees when I started painting this and deciding on a colour palette.
Yellows, greens and browns. Not colours I usually use but you can’t argue with nature’s beauty.
Then the title just seemed so obvious and perfect.
Misiluki is Samoan for Lady Finger bananas.
Lady Fingers. Five digits on a hand and five is the number of sisters I paint over and over again.
This bunch of five sisters are all grown up.
Love by Numbers (A Scarlet Series Book)
Numbers are Tamarina’s language. And there’s no room in her equations for love. Or is there? A sweet sultry love story about a math genius and a mechanic. Return to Scarlet’s world, only this time read her sister Tamarina’s story.
Only $10 USD. (Approx currency exchange)
Mango Fandango
INSPIRATION
Mangoes are always special.
Fancy. Soft. Sweet. Round.
Celebratory and luxurious.
So this is what I infused in the figures, tones, and shapes.
It feels warm and sweet and happy.
I learned so much about mangoes doing this painting.
Eg.
🥭The paisley pattern on bandanas originates from mangoes.
🥭The leaves from a mango tree are believed to repel negative energy and attract prosperity and fertility in India where the mango is believed to originate.
ARTWORK
The starting point was the heads of the women, which followed an exact formation of mangoes hanging on a tree. Everything went from this point.
I used the colours of mangoes: orange, yellow, red, green, coral, purple. Tropical, sweet and glowy.
I used the curvy shapes of oval mangoes, long pointy leaves, and delicate long red stems laden with pale yellow tiny mango flowers.
Metallic colours of gold and copper added luxe and celebration.
This is the story of Mango Fandango.
(I used fandango in the sense of fun, party and dance).
Me Time
This painting is about trying to capture the individual experience of looking inside for clarity and truth and looking outside for strength or inspiration.
I painted it as I was learning to meditate.
An unlikely sources of artistic inspiration in this depiction of a Samoan woman is mosque architecture.
Natural Woman
Craving nature, feeling anti-technology, craving authenticity, resenting clocks and calendars and dresscodes, imagining living off the land, channeling ancestors, craving trees and fruit, and fresh air.
Pacific Blue Madonna
The original painting was exhibited and sold at the Regenerating Oceania Exhibition at the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture in Honolulu 6-16 June 2024.
This print is a deep statement about motherhood and the crucial role mothers have in sustaining society in Oceania.
Scarlet Lies
Lies are beautiful – when the truth hurts. Sixteen years ago, Scarlet’s family sent her away in disgrace. She’s been back once – with disastrous consequences. Now, her little sister is getting married and Scarlet’s headed home once more. Will this be the reunion she’s always longed for? Or will the lies of her childhood entangle her once more in their beautiful embrace? More than ‘just a romance’, this poignant story about the tangled connections between mothers, daughters and sisters – speaks with compelling insight and humor, of inherited trauma, and of desire and deception.
Only $10 USD.
Scarlet Redemption (Book Three in the Scarlet Series)
Every woman has her breaking point. Has Scarlet reached hers? In this beautifully crafted tale of redemption and renewal, Scarlet must choose between staying in the shadows of weighty family secrets, or stepping out into the light, and thus risking it all. Can she do it? And will Jackson be a part of that journey? The thrilling conclusion to the heat, humour and heartache of the Scarlet Lies Series.
Only $10 USD.


















