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culturalchamp.bsky.social
Cultural Champ
@culturalchamp.bsky.social
2.2K followers 2.3K following 3K posts
People, places & Pacific wonder
Public programs curator
> The Veiqia Project > > >
Kai Lancashire, England + Vasu Nadroga, Fiji
Working on Baramadagal land
Posts Replies Media Videos
culturalchamp.bsky.social
#BIRDS QUERY: In the northern districts of Sydney, this bird dropped into our backyard for the 1st time.

What is it?

(apart from lovely 🤩)
Long-necked & long-legged bird with a grebe-looking face. Mostly a dove grey colour with long, lighter coloured feathers on its back and an edge of very dark feathers outline the tail. The bird is walking across green grass. A lovely bird is walking past basketball hoop bases and a bucketful of dead footies, bested by my dog. It’s a long-necked & long-legged bird with a grebe-looking face. Mostly a dove grey colour with long, lighter coloured feathers on its back and an edge of very dark feathers outline the tail. The bird is walking across green grass.
October 27, 2025 at 2:55 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
@marcuskelson.bsky.social are y’all still in Japan perchance?
Screenshot of post “my friends, I am in a 10-person capacity record bar in Tokyo requesting songs and drinking Japanese whiskey. the owners are a married couple chain smoking behind the bar, slinging cocktails, and spinning records. this is heaven??? goodbye forever I have died” It is accompanied by a photo of a nearly empty whiskey bottle on a counter in the foreground, and an impressive wall case of vinyl albums in the background.
October 23, 2025 at 3:26 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
On Fiji Day, it makes me happy that a cheeky reply of mine is proving to be popular 🇫🇯🤎🇫🇯

(48 🩶 is big for me)
Screenshot of an original post with two linked replies. The original post by Lindsey Beyerstein reads: Of all the clerics they could’ve popped, those ICE idiots had to hit Hot Priest. The accompanying image shows a female presenter in a red shirt on the left side of the screen and a young, bearded priest on the right. He is not unattractive. First reply, from Siegfried Skaldrup reads: Bless me Daddy… I mean, Father. My reply then reads: The way I shouldn’t have guffawed
October 10, 2025 at 12:06 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Grand Final hat trick for Brisbane / Bris Vegas / Brissy:
#AFL
#NRLW
#NRL
Two men are wearing matching Brisbane Lions AFL sports uniforms and holding up a big, shiny trophy between them. They are surrounded by ecstatic fans. A jubilant team of women in matching Brisbane Broncos NRLW sports uniforms are cheering with flames lighting up the background. An exuberant team of men in matching Brisbane Broncos NRL sports uniforms are cheering as their captain holds up the championship trophy they have won. Flames and lights fill the top part of the photo.
October 5, 2025 at 11:26 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
#NRL grand final time.

We’ve got a bottomless mix of yaqona/kava on, snacks all around, card games going & kids with water balloons 👀

We’re Fijian so it’s about to get loud 🤣

Lessgo Broncos!
Lots of happy looking, brown-skinned people are sitting outside a house on a patio and grass area. People in the foreground are sitting on a woven mat and playing cards on an upturned tub. People in the background are sitting on chairs and looking towards glass doors.
October 5, 2025 at 8:41 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Almost thought I was looking at my Nala 🤩
A lubley doggo called Nala, who is the colour of dark honey, is curled up on a bed and resting her weary head on a round, turquoise cushion. She’s a beautiful girl.
September 27, 2025 at 1:24 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Aust biennial bird poll is coming & noms are open for the 50 candidates.

🌈Rainbow Lorikeets🦜 are my fave so why not give em a go? Link’s in the article 👍🏾

Closes this Sun 21 Sep

Song: Honest, by Pei
September 19, 2025 at 7:30 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
AKL Buy! Buy! Buy! 😊
My crew, The Veiqia Project have our fundraising art auction 1pm this Sat with our cousins @ Moana Fresh in Avondale & brother Kenneth Tuai as auctioneer 🌺

Artworks from Joana Monolagi & Margaret Aull. Limited edition T’s by me (inc VITI*LICIOUS - Toso Viti Toso) & more 👏🏾
The Veiqia Art Auction Saturday 20 September 2025 From 1pm Come join us at Moana Fresh 64 Rosebank Road, Avondale, Auckland Image: Detail of a painting by Margaret Aull. The detail shows a matakau or carved figure. https://theveiqiaproject.com/ The Veiqia Project Art Auction Image: Detail of a painting by Margaret Aull. The detail shows a matakau or carved figure. https://theveiqiaproject.com/ Pacific AI Ancestral Intelligence is printed on the front of a dark blue T-shirt with a white swish appearing between the lines of writing. This limited edition T-shirt is from Donita Vatuinaruku Hulme. https://theveiqiaproject.com/ Detail of artwork by Joana Monolagi, the 2015 CNZ Pacific Heritage Art Award winner. Detail shows a section of masi (tapa), part of which is printed with draudrau design motifs, overlaid with a wanitabua woven with magimagi (sennit) which crosses the work diagonally and encircles a white buli shell. https://theveiqiaproject.com/
September 17, 2025 at 11:02 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Nicely 👍🏾

Makes me think of the hopping lamp post in Spirited Away.
Still image from the Miyazaki animated classic, Spirited Away. A lamp post, with one white foot, is bowing respectfully to a young girl (Sen) and a large black spirit with a white mask (No Face). Sen and No Face are also bowing respectfully.
September 16, 2025 at 6:11 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
WWWWHHHHHYYYYYY?
$83 million
every year
for 30 years
to send asylum seekers elsewhere
when it would be
✅ less cost &
✅ more humanitarian
to welcome them here.

We can’t afford this CULTURE WAR shite during a cost-of-living crisis 🔥

(or at any bloody time FFS)
Image is text that reads: “Difference between a million, a billion and a trillion seconds A million seconds = 12 days A billion seconds = 32 years A trillion seconds = 31,688 years”
September 3, 2025 at 10:24 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
The birds!

One reason I love where I live is because loads of birds live here too & make their presence known:
Magpies, Rainbow Lorikeets, Kookaburras, Cockatoos & more.
September 3, 2025 at 8:39 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
The buttons?
The belt?
The future?
👀
Close up of an AI-generated torso. It’s a red vest with six oddly placed motifs or maybe non-functioning buttons. Over the garment, at the waist, is a wide strip that gives the impression of a belt. It has the outline of a big, gold tone buckle over a yellow and black strip. It’s clearly non-functional.
August 25, 2025 at 8:57 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
WFH today & it’s raining. This soggy Rainbow Lorikeet was taking refuge on the window ledge until another 🦜 annoyed him. 1 minute later it started BUCKETING down 😮

Music: Honest - Pei
August 21, 2025 at 12:37 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Slowly doing weaving R&D for a bigger work is making me happy at the moment.
Weaving sample made from two different cords: khaki and puce mixed cord on the left with yellow and red striped cord on the right.
August 8, 2025 at 12:18 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Renters paint better than this
Money but no taste, care or smarts
Close up of a moulded wall decoration that has been painted very badly in gold.
August 8, 2025 at 12:02 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Stayed cosy indoors all day as the skies let loose in Sydney & then made 5 bangles with a new batch of cords tonight (the skies are now wild as)
Five chunky woven bangles are laid out across each other on a table. They are brightly coloured and some are a mix of colours.
August 2, 2025 at 11:18 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Two days of solid rain & feathered rainbow visitors

#rainbowLorikeets #birds
August 2, 2025 at 6:47 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Album cover for Cyndi Lauper’s album, She’s So Unusual which was released in 1985. The image is Cyndi dancing outside a bright blue building with yellow doors. She’s barefoot and her bright red skirt is swirling around. Cyndi’s arms are akimbo, mid dance move, and her red hair is flicking out to right.
July 27, 2025 at 4:57 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Hokay! I might have overdone the cheese. Will let y’all know after 🤩
A toasted sandwich, made of light rye bread toasted to a deep gold colour, sits on a rectangular plate with shell-shaped designs on it. The sandwich is cut in quarters and there is a lot of yellow, melted cheese oozing out of each square piece. Perhaps too much?
July 25, 2025 at 9:24 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Nala joining the birthday ceremony 🤩 Back in March! I need to take more photos of our lovely girl.
A tall teenager and two young children are seated on a beautifully woven Fijian mat with a lovely toffee-coloured dog lying at their feet. The dog is wearing a neon green harness with her name on it, Nala. At the bottom of the image is a stainless steel basin full of yaqona (kava, in English) that a man in sitting at with his hands on the rim.
July 20, 2025 at 8:41 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Isa Julian McMahon. Son of Lady Sonia & Billy McMahon, 1st husband of Danni Minogue, fellow Aussie Gen X-er. Gone too soon.

I loved The Residence & got a kick out of seeing him, the son of a former PM, playing the PM. Had no idea it’d be his last acting role RIP.
Australian actor Julian McMahon wearing a tuxedo and standing in front of two chandelier-like wall lamps, blue and white wallpaper, and gilt frames. It’s a still shot from the Netflix series, The Residence, in which McMahon played the role of Australian Prime Minister, Stephen Roos.
July 5, 2025 at 12:44 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
You know you’re in Fiji…
Beautiful, fresh bouquet of vibrantly coloured flowers on a meeting table in Fiji. Includes the many-petalled ginger flowers, like little towers of petals, in different shades of pink.
June 24, 2025 at 12:04 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Half a trillion is a shit ton of money at ANY time but especially now during the cost-of-living AND climate crises

#auspol
Handy graphic explaining: Difference between a million, a billion and a trillion seconds A million seconds = 12 Days A billion seconds = 32 Years A trillion seconds = 31,688 Years
June 2, 2025 at 9:37 AM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Look at those feathers 🤩
Close up of a beautiful kestrel bird with feathers in browns, cream and streaks. The kestrel is standing on dry, green grass.
May 28, 2025 at 12:29 PM
culturalchamp.bsky.social
Previously, the longest MP suspension was 3 days.

Drive a vehicle UP THE STEPS OF PARLIAMENT?
No suspension

Do a haka in parliament?
21-day suspension WTAF

#NZpol
May 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM