Emele Ugavule is a Tokelauan, Uvean, and Fijian storyteller. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), and Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: NZ Drama School she has worked with various artists and organisations across the Pacific including Sydney Opera House, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, Netflix and Mad Ones Films, ABC Australia, Creative Australia, Creative New Zealand and Sony Australia.

Her work centres on Indigenous Oceanic storytelling, exploring themes of temporality, memory, kinship, technology and knowledge transmission. She has tutored across performing arts and design technology at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: NZ Drama School, WAAPA, NIDA and Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University (Miramar Creative Centre) and guest lectured at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

She isa founding member of Studio Kiin, an Indigenous-led creative studio and collective, serves as the Creative Director of Talanoa, a platform dedicated to Oceanic digital storytelling, the curator of Melanesian and Oceanic arts event series Tok Talanoa and Tadra Vata, and alongside her husband is a co-founder of the Mataka Foundation, an Indigenous Futures focused social enterprise.

 Emele is represented by Liberty Artist Management.

Photo: Richmond Kobla