• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Photography student Vicky Te Puni will exhibit a multi-media biography of a Pacific Island ethnic journey at the Unitec Grad Show.

You may recognize photography student Vicky Te Puni from the Unitec Institute of Technology reality-doco style advertising campaign that has unfolded on television screens during the year.

Photography student Vicky Te Puni will exhibit a multi-media biography of a Pacific Island ethnic journey at the Unitec Grad Show.

You may recognize photography student Vicky Te Puni from the Unitec Institute of Technology reality-doco style advertising campaign that has unfolded on television screens during the year.

Vicky, who is completing her Bachelor of Photography is one of three students from different ages, stages and walks of life who has been part Unitec’s 'Change Starts Here' brand campaign.

Like all graduates from the Faculty of Creative Industries and Business, Vicky will be exhibiting her work at the Unitec Grad Show which opens on Thursday December 1 with an evening launch party at the Mt Albert campus.

Full of inspirational and diverse exhibitions from a range of study disciplines, department prize-givings to honour exceptional student work, industry events and special guest speakers, the event looks set to demonstrate, once again, why Grad Show is such a popular Unitec tradition.

Vicky’s exhibition includes a video biography about Dorothy McGeedy, who shares her adoption story with the camera and describes the ethnic journey she has travelled in her 50 years. After being brought up in a Fijian family, Dorothy found out she was adopted and that she was not Fijian but in fact Samoan. She then discovered much about her true heritage and that her family were living in New Zealand along with the heartbreaking discovery that her biological mother had travelled to Fiji to reclaim her had been stopped from doing so.

Vicky has produced a short film of Dorothy talking about her ethnic journey and how the process has influenced many of her life decisions. Dorothy now lives and works in New Zealand.

Vicky will also exhibit a series of photographs of objects that Dorothy has been given throughout her ethnic journey. A greenstone; a set of pearls; an ornamental Fale; and a salu salu (Fijian decorative neck-piece)

Other exhibits includes those of graduates from courses in costume design and short film, interior design, graphic design, landscape architecture, painting, photography, and many more disciplines.

Unitec’s business departments - Computing, Management and Marketing and Accounting and Finance - are looking forward to their industry event on Wednesday. Their special guest speaker is Mitch Olson, entrepreneur and co-founder of Small Worlds, New Zealand's largest social gaming company. The Communication Studies department will host their guest speaker, Alison Mau, and other invited guests, at their prize-giving the following evening.

Performing and Screen Arts will hold an alumni event for past staff and students on Friday 2 December.

Grad Show opens on Thursday 1 December at 5.30pm. Guests should come to Building 1, via Entry 2, Carrington Rd, Mt Albert. The exhibition element of the event will remain open for public viewing on Friday and Saturday, from 10am to 4pm.