UPU tours Canada in 2026

Despite two decades as a professional actor, Fasitua had never encountered the breathtaking work of the Pacific’s most celebrated poets. Their world-renowned voices, *our* voices, were invisible in the spaces he inhabited.

This realization sparked a simple, powerful idea: What if we brought these poems out of the books and into the light, sound, and movement of the theatre? What if we made them an experience for people who, like him, love to sit in the dark and watch a live performance? He teamed up with his mate Grace Taylor to work on this idea.

That idea became UPU.

UPU is an emotional awakening. It weaves together the published works of over 20 poetic giants of the Moana—like Selina Tusitala Marsh, Tusiata Avia, Tafea Polamalu and Albert Wendt—into a single, powerful performance. Set against a stunning backdrop of visual design, sound, and light, skilled actors give body and soul to these poems, transforming them into a journey of love, pain, laughter, and profound resilience.

From Aotearoa to Mexico City, and to a sold-out season at the Sydney Opera House, UPU has left audiences stunned and deeply connected. These stories are our truth-telling, and they resonate with a universal power. Now, we’ve been invited to share them on our most ambitious journey yet: an eight-city tour across Canada in 2026.

Executive Producer: Ana Corbett

Creative Director/Producer: Fasitua Amosa:

Crew: Emily Hakaraia, Elekis Plobete, Eliza Rutter

Cast: Nicola Kawana, Ana Corbett, Miriama McDowell, Shadon Meredith, Jarod Rawiri, Fasitua Amosa.

To make this vision a reality, we need your support. We are raising $15,000 to fully realize this project:

• $10,000: Tour Costs The bulk of this will go to increasing the fees for our team to bring UPU to eight Canadian cities. Touring this long is hard and being overseas for an extended period means missing out on other work. Being able to put a little more in the pocket of our party of 9 will ease the burden. A small portion will go towards our freight cost.
• $2,500: Collaboration Seed Fund. This allows us to say "yes" to the unexpected. It’s a fund to immediately foster the new collaborations that may come up from this tour.
• $2,500: New Work Seed Fund. This kickstarts the early development of our next project, Tales of the Tikongs, ensuring the momentum from UPU carries directly into our next great offering.

This tour is about more than performance; it’s about exchange. We are unapologetically Pacific, and we carry our perspectives to Canada not as a final destination, but as an opening. We see a profound opportunity to spark dialogue with the First Nations and Indigenous communities there. We are leading the way for a Moana theatre company by making meaningful engagement and access for local indigenous peoples and communities a contractual obligation.

We go to listen as much as to share. We will bring their stories home with us, too, beginning to weave a wider, richer tapestry of global Indigenous voices. A poem heard today might spark a collaboration years from now; a story shared could ripple into new art, activism, or unexpected kinship. This is the invisible work of connection that changes the world—slowly, deeply, and beyond prediction.

Through UPU, we are building more than a show; we are building a pathway. The success of our tours to the Sydney Opera House and now Canada is evidence of our hard work paying off.  UPU Collective is positioning itself as an experienced producer and a trusted bridge, connecting the extraordinary but often isolated work of independent Pacific artists to international stages.

By building lasting relationships with presenters and partners across Australia and Canada, we are creating a network that can sustainably tour high-quality Pacific theatrical works to the world. This Canadian tour is a critical step in proving that model, demonstrating the global appetite for our stories and our ability to deliver them.

The magic of a tour like this isn’t just in the performances themselves, but in the collaborations it inspires and the new work it births. That’s why this campaign looks beyond the immediate journey.

We must be ready to respond to the creative partnerships that will undoubtedly emerge from our time in Canada. Art begets art, and we need the resources to nurture what grows from these new connections.

Furthermore, we have secured the rights to adapt Tales of the Tikongs by Epeli Hau‘ofa, a project that will be our next work in development. 

Amplifying Pacific Voices on the World Stage
By bringing our stories in our words, through our poets, performed by our artists to international venues, we assert our place in global culture on our own terms. This tour tells Canada, and the world, that Pacific storytelling is sophisticated, powerful, and worthy of the world's main stages. It builds pride at home and understanding abroad, changing the perception of what Pacific art can be.

Creating  Pathways
The dream for many independent artists is to tour their work internationally. This tour is a step towards that reality. We are creating a touring pathway across Canada, building relationships with presenters and getting valuable touring experience that we can use to benefit more NZ artists in the future.

Fostering Meaningful Exchange
This is more than a cultural exchange; it’s a meeting of kin. Pacific peoples and First Nations communities in Canada share the profound common ground of being Indigenous peoples navigating a post-colonial world. Our stories of sovereignty, loss, language revitalization, resilience, and joy speak a similar language of the spirit. By creating a space for shared dialogue and mutual listening, we forge powerful alliances. This solidarity transcends performance—it’s a network of shared strength, learning, and advocacy that empowers all our communities.

Transforming Understanding and Building Empathy
A single powerful performance can change a heart and mind. For non-Indigenous audiences in Canada, UPU is an invitation to see the Pacific through our eyes—to feel the emotional truth of our histories and contemporary lives. It replaces ignorance with insight and stereotypes with humanity. For Diaspora Pacific communities in Canada, it is a vital touchstone to home, a night of cultural nourishment and pride. For everyone, it is a breathtaking piece of art that demonstrates the universal power of storytelling.