“SOLESOLEVAKI: coming together for a shared purpose”

CONJAH is a creative force of ‘feeling’; bleeding beyond the traditional boundaries of physical performance and creating immersive worlds inhabited by compelling beings. Artists, world-builders, dance-theatre makers, poets, visual artists, film-makers, vocalists, writers and entity-benders, CONJAH are known for their formidable presence on stage that is balanced by their deep care for others. If a creative practice is a map, then CONJAH are geographically based at the collision of multiple visions. Through performance and practice, CONJAH pushes into the potential of our collective dreams and nightmares, and explores what happens when we face them.

CONJAH (Jahra Wasasala and ooshcon) embody an intersection of Fijian/Pākeha and Samoan/Pākeha heritage, hailing from the villages of Sorokoba and Naduri in Fiji, and Lalomanu and Vailele in Samoa. Jahra is born and raised on the unceded Ngati Whatua whenua of Tāmaki Makaurau, and Ooshcon is born and raised on the unceded whenua of the Taranaki Whānui ki Te Ūpoko o Te Ika whenua of the Te Awa Kairangi region.

Jahra and ooshcon intertwine their solo bodies of work based within non-human phenomena, cultural mapping, political resistance, and emotional rigor to coalesce into a shared practice. Deeply informed in an ever-learning relationship with their cultures and social-mapping, CONJAH’s performance works are theatrical experiences rooted in ecologies of transformation and kin-ship (human and non-human). CONJAH’s approach, affectionately dubbed 'Oceanic Terror-fi, draws from and contributes to an everlasting lineage of Indigenous Future-Mythos and a collective movement towards liberation and resistance.

CONJAH's pantheon of practice continues to expand through an array of mediums including Contemporary Theatre, Performance, World-Building, Creature Study, Cultural Learning, Street-Born Dance and Cultures, Physical Theatre, Poetry, Film, Sculpture, Voice Work, Photography, and Digital Art collaborations. With a commitment to collaborative partnership, CONJAH fosters an environment where each collaborative artist retains creative agency and where relationship is the gathering point for developing performance work.

CONJAH are award-winning artists, receiving the Arts Foundation Springboard Award in 2022, including mentor-ship from internationally acclaimed artist, Lisa Reihana MNZM. Jahra and ooshcon are also XIII WRLD Faculty members; an elite team of highly-skilled Street Dancers and a development training programme.

CONJAH are currently in development for their performance work set to premiere in 2025
at Kia Mau Festival, Aotearoa (NZ).