My salusalu from @colourmefiji.bsky.social arrived today and it's so beautiful. A little piece of South Auckland for my therapy space 🌺
March 25, 2025 at 4:49 AM
My salusalu from @colourmefiji.bsky.social arrived today and it's so beautiful. A little piece of South Auckland for my therapy space 🌺
West Papua on the brain today, freedom for West Papua always in my heart.
#Salusalu #TeamFiji #TeamMela #MoanaOceania #SouthAuckland #FreeWestPapua
#Salusalu #TeamFiji #TeamMela #MoanaOceania #SouthAuckland #FreeWestPapua
March 26, 2025 at 8:10 AM
West Papua on the brain today, freedom for West Papua always in my heart.
#Salusalu #TeamFiji #TeamMela #MoanaOceania #SouthAuckland #FreeWestPapua
#Salusalu #TeamFiji #TeamMela #MoanaOceania #SouthAuckland #FreeWestPapua
Have been working on a #salusalu commission for the last two days, a deceivingly simple process that involves cutting, sewing & attaching 120 felt tabs, 95 hand-cut leaves, 30 stylised rosi (rose motifs) + 10 meters of Fiji blue Ric Rac trim 🩵
Love seeing these salusalu head out into the world!
Love seeing these salusalu head out into the world!
April 16, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Have been working on a #salusalu commission for the last two days, a deceivingly simple process that involves cutting, sewing & attaching 120 felt tabs, 95 hand-cut leaves, 30 stylised rosi (rose motifs) + 10 meters of Fiji blue Ric Rac trim 🩵
Love seeing these salusalu head out into the world!
Love seeing these salusalu head out into the world!
15 salusalu is now 17 salusalu and slowly but surely, they’re coming to life 🌺🌼🌸🌻🌷🌺
Love making these and can’t wait to see them meet their people next month!
Love making these and can’t wait to see them meet their people next month!
June 14, 2025 at 9:08 AM
15 salusalu is now 17 salusalu and slowly but surely, they’re coming to life 🌺🌼🌸🌻🌷🌺
Love making these and can’t wait to see them meet their people next month!
Love making these and can’t wait to see them meet their people next month!
Restocked #CelebrateAotearoa, G.I’s cutest little gift store, with 3 new felt #Salusalu 🌺
For giving & receiving, hanging on a wall, or around a special photograph, these salusalu are for fortifying social bonds, cultivating connection and community.
📍 1/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
For giving & receiving, hanging on a wall, or around a special photograph, these salusalu are for fortifying social bonds, cultivating connection and community.
📍 1/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
May 10, 2026 at 1:53 AM
Restocked #CelebrateAotearoa, G.I’s cutest little gift store, with 3 new felt #Salusalu 🌺
For giving & receiving, hanging on a wall, or around a special photograph, these salusalu are for fortifying social bonds, cultivating connection and community.
📍 1/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
For giving & receiving, hanging on a wall, or around a special photograph, these salusalu are for fortifying social bonds, cultivating connection and community.
📍 1/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
Home of the felt salusalu...
Salusalu by Vasemaca In Fijian, a salusalu is a hand-made garland of flowers, foliage, vau (hibiscus fibre) and sometimes barkcloth. When given and received to mark important events and achievement…
vunilagivou.com
March 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Home of the felt salusalu...
I made felt garlands for all the speakers at our witness seminar last Friday, and on the body or on the wall, these garlands, based on Fijian salusalu design, are beautifully satisfying to make and gift ❤️
June 9, 2024 at 9:45 AM
I made felt garlands for all the speakers at our witness seminar last Friday, and on the body or on the wall, these garlands, based on Fijian salusalu design, are beautifully satisfying to make and gift ❤️
Making garlands from felt, based on Fijian salusalu, has been seriously healing this week.
Plastic wrap lolly leis are rotting our teeth, bodies and earth. Sorry not sorry.
Plastic wrap lolly leis are rotting our teeth, bodies and earth. Sorry not sorry.
June 6, 2024 at 9:52 AM
Making garlands from felt, based on Fijian salusalu, has been seriously healing this week.
Plastic wrap lolly leis are rotting our teeth, bodies and earth. Sorry not sorry.
Plastic wrap lolly leis are rotting our teeth, bodies and earth. Sorry not sorry.
My new therapy room is really taking shape, pals. I'm so happy.
March 28, 2025 at 3:32 AM
My new therapy room is really taking shape, pals. I'm so happy.
I made 34 felt salusalu (Fijian garlands) for a big event last week and seeing highlights on One News last night was such a sweet buzz 😊 I love making these and this order had over 1700 individually cut parts. Wouldn’t have been able to do it without my excellent studio assistant, Taniela 🤲🏽
November 29, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I made 34 felt salusalu (Fijian garlands) for a big event last week and seeing highlights on One News last night was such a sweet buzz 😊 I love making these and this order had over 1700 individually cut parts. Wouldn’t have been able to do it without my excellent studio assistant, Taniela 🤲🏽
An order of 15 felt salusalu (Fijian garlands) requires 360 rectangular tabs, 180 small leaves, 105 seamed long leaves, 90 individually rolled ‘rosi’ flowers and 30 meters of ric-rac trim.
30 rosi down, 60 to go.
#MadeInSouthAuckland #Salusalu #TeamFiji #PacificArt #HandMade
30 rosi down, 60 to go.
#MadeInSouthAuckland #Salusalu #TeamFiji #PacificArt #HandMade
June 12, 2025 at 7:23 PM
An order of 15 felt salusalu (Fijian garlands) requires 360 rectangular tabs, 180 small leaves, 105 seamed long leaves, 90 individually rolled ‘rosi’ flowers and 30 meters of ric-rac trim.
30 rosi down, 60 to go.
#MadeInSouthAuckland #Salusalu #TeamFiji #PacificArt #HandMade
30 rosi down, 60 to go.
#MadeInSouthAuckland #Salusalu #TeamFiji #PacificArt #HandMade
I made Fijian flag inspired salusalu (garlands) for visiting Fijian filmmakers Tumeli Tuqota & Laisiasa Dave Lavaki yesterday to offer thanks for their important documentary, “Elections in Paradise” and the effort to bring it to diaspora Fijians 🥹 It is SUCH a good film and I felt so proud ❤️🔥🇫🇯❤️🔥
August 21, 2024 at 7:22 AM
I made Fijian flag inspired salusalu (garlands) for visiting Fijian filmmakers Tumeli Tuqota & Laisiasa Dave Lavaki yesterday to offer thanks for their important documentary, “Elections in Paradise” and the effort to bring it to diaspora Fijians 🥹 It is SUCH a good film and I felt so proud ❤️🔥🇫🇯❤️🔥
I write about and document my practice here:
Salusalu: making, gifting, learning | Vasemaca (FKA Ema) Tavola
Get more from Vasemaca (FKA Ema) Tavola on Patreon
www.patreon.com
June 9, 2024 at 10:35 PM
I write about and document my practice here:
5/ A special shoutout to my fellow Kadavuan, @colourmefiji.bsky.social of Vunilagi Vou 🇫🇯🇳🇿 and the Inter-Island collective 🇳🇿🇬🇧 whose leis and salusalu wrapped us in the warmth of community. We wore them proudly!
May 17, 2025 at 9:05 PM
5/ A special shoutout to my fellow Kadavuan, @colourmefiji.bsky.social of Vunilagi Vou 🇫🇯🇳🇿 and the Inter-Island collective 🇳🇿🇬🇧 whose leis and salusalu wrapped us in the warmth of community. We wore them proudly!
Excited to be part of the May POP-UP Market at Celebrate Aotearoa!
Will have lots of textile things from the Vunilagi Vou studio; mini banners, bunting, brooches, salusalu (Fijian garlands), totes, prints, patches + more!
🌺 10am-3pm, Saturday 3 May
📍3/260 Apirana Avenue, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
Will have lots of textile things from the Vunilagi Vou studio; mini banners, bunting, brooches, salusalu (Fijian garlands), totes, prints, patches + more!
🌺 10am-3pm, Saturday 3 May
📍3/260 Apirana Avenue, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
April 8, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Excited to be part of the May POP-UP Market at Celebrate Aotearoa!
Will have lots of textile things from the Vunilagi Vou studio; mini banners, bunting, brooches, salusalu (Fijian garlands), totes, prints, patches + more!
🌺 10am-3pm, Saturday 3 May
📍3/260 Apirana Avenue, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
Will have lots of textile things from the Vunilagi Vou studio; mini banners, bunting, brooches, salusalu (Fijian garlands), totes, prints, patches + more!
🌺 10am-3pm, Saturday 3 May
📍3/260 Apirana Avenue, Glen Innes, East #Auckland
Zimaseka "Zim" Salusalu, Gugulethu, Cape Town https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/210213
November 13, 2024 at 7:04 PM
Zimaseka "Zim" Salusalu, Gugulethu, Cape Town https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/210213
#EPI 8- Nous arrivons à Lopalis, le village le plus proche de la station sismique. Accueil par le chef du village. Salusalu (colliers de fleurs), toktok (discours du chef, de l'ambassadeur du Japon, du directeur VMGD et de moi-même) et kakai (fruits, tubercules, poisson).
April 18, 2026 at 6:36 AM
#EPI 8- Nous arrivons à Lopalis, le village le plus proche de la station sismique. Accueil par le chef du village. Salusalu (colliers de fleurs), toktok (discours du chef, de l'ambassadeur du Japon, du directeur VMGD et de moi-même) et kakai (fruits, tubercules, poisson).
Dear gods, even the salusalu they’re wearing have such over exaggerated elements that they’re almost like capes instead of (naturally beautiful) garlands 😦
September 21, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Dear gods, even the salusalu they’re wearing have such over exaggerated elements that they’re almost like capes instead of (naturally beautiful) garlands 😦
Felt Salusalu (Garland) – Orange Rosi / Navy Leaves
Traditionally made from either vau (dried wild hibiscus fibre) and masi (barkcloth), or fragrant fresh flowers and foliage, Fijian salusalu (customary garlands) are made and gifted to mark achievements, social bonds and milestones. They adorn the…
Traditionally made from either vau (dried wild hibiscus fibre) and masi (barkcloth), or fragrant fresh flowers and foliage, Fijian salusalu (customary garlands) are made and gifted to mark achievements, social bonds and milestones. They adorn the…
Felt Salusalu (Garland) – Orange Rosi / Navy Leaves
Traditionally made from either vau (dried wild hibiscus fibre) and masi (barkcloth), or fragrant fresh flowers and foliage, Fijian salusalu (customary garlands) are made and gifted to mark achievements, social bonds and milestones. They adorn the chest and shoulders, circling the head - the most sacred part of the body - in decoration. These felt salusalu were originally developed in May 2024 at Vunilagi Vou to use oddly shaped pieces of felt leftover from making the works for the exhibition, To Live + Die in South Auckland. The construction draws on the classic salusalu design of layers of looped masi (barkcloth) or leaves, overlaid with rows of contrasting flowers or rosi (rose motifs) made from vau (dried hibiscus fibre). They use coloured ric-rac trim as a direct reference to nostalgic memories of Fijian quilting, school uniforms and home-made clothes. Whilst these felt salusalu have a functional application and are made to be worn, gifted and adorned, they also function as a wall-based artwork, hanging most beautifully from two hooks. Read more about the process of making these salusalu via Patreon here
vunilagivou.com
March 18, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Felt Salusalu (Garland) – Orange Rosi / Navy Leaves
Traditionally made from either vau (dried wild hibiscus fibre) and masi (barkcloth), or fragrant fresh flowers and foliage, Fijian salusalu (customary garlands) are made and gifted to mark achievements, social bonds and milestones. They adorn the…
Traditionally made from either vau (dried wild hibiscus fibre) and masi (barkcloth), or fragrant fresh flowers and foliage, Fijian salusalu (customary garlands) are made and gifted to mark achievements, social bonds and milestones. They adorn the…
#EPI 8 – We arrive in Lopalis, the village closest to the seismic station. The village chief welcomes us with salusalu (flower necklaces), toktok (speeches by the chief, the Japanese ambassador, the VMGD director, and myself), and kakai (fruit, tubers, and fish).
April 18, 2026 at 7:19 PM
#EPI 8 – We arrive in Lopalis, the village closest to the seismic station. The village chief welcomes us with salusalu (flower necklaces), toktok (speeches by the chief, the Japanese ambassador, the VMGD director, and myself), and kakai (fruit, tubers, and fish).
Welcome to #TeamFiji on Blue Sky (puts virtual salusalu on you)
a woman is sitting on a couch making a funny face and pointing at the camera .
ALT: a woman is sitting on a couch making a funny face and pointing at the camera .
media.tenor.com
December 5, 2024 at 6:57 AM
Welcome to #TeamFiji on Blue Sky (puts virtual salusalu on you)
Restocking Celebrate Aotearoa in Glen Innes this week 🌺 Making these multicoloured #Fijian salusalu from felt & ric-rac has become such a joyful act!
#CelebrateAotearoa is a locally owned gift shop and treasure trove of beautiful things!
📍 3/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East Auckland
#CelebrateAotearoa is a locally owned gift shop and treasure trove of beautiful things!
📍 3/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East Auckland
March 17, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Restocking Celebrate Aotearoa in Glen Innes this week 🌺 Making these multicoloured #Fijian salusalu from felt & ric-rac has become such a joyful act!
#CelebrateAotearoa is a locally owned gift shop and treasure trove of beautiful things!
📍 3/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East Auckland
#CelebrateAotearoa is a locally owned gift shop and treasure trove of beautiful things!
📍 3/260 Apirana Ave, Glen Innes, East Auckland
Graduating with Bachelors alongside the homie Leilani Salesa in 2006, and celebrating my sister's Masters graduation in Suva in 2010. Her salusalu (garland) was next level 😍 - we celebrated her excellent award-winning degree achieved whilst working full-time and having three children 💎👊🏽🇫🇯
July 31, 2024 at 1:49 AM
Graduating with Bachelors alongside the homie Leilani Salesa in 2006, and celebrating my sister's Masters graduation in Suva in 2010. Her salusalu (garland) was next level 😍 - we celebrated her excellent award-winning degree achieved whilst working full-time and having three children 💎👊🏽🇫🇯