Being Nuiean in Auckland and living as part of the Pacific diaspora in a post colonial world - these are the experiences that inform the essense of John Pule's being. The personal is layered - be it the family with which he arrived from Nuie, or the family he has made with Sofia Tekela-Smith, there is always an intensely personal aspect, an intimacy that runs deep through John Pule's painting, printmaking, poetry and prose.