Lily Aitui Laita became the first Pacific woman to graduate from the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts after earning her degree in 1990. She passed away in October but has left behind a Samoan legacy.

In the subsequent year, she achieved a Diploma in Teaching, and later in 2002, she completed her Master of Fine Arts with a focus on Painting.

In the 1980s, she was among the first generation of Pacific artists to study visual art in Aotearoa, New Zealand. 

She was an internationally renowned artist and one of the founding members of Tautai Pacific Art Trust, with eighteen of her works in the Te Papa Museum collection.  

Ms. Laita, a highly esteemed art educator, spent over thirty years as Head of Arts at Western Springs College, where she instructed and shaped a new generation of artists in expressive painting and sculpture. 

"The amazing Lily was in her fourth year when I first started, the fourth-year students from that year were so epic, they made us feel welcome and valued." 

Award-winning artist Ani O’Neill (Cook Island, Ireland) graduated from the University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1994, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture. O’Neill’s practice is grounded in her mother’s homeland of Rarotonga and her birthplace within the Pacific diaspora of Auckland.

Inspired by her grandmother’s teachings of Cook Islands material and ceremonial culture, O’Neill’s seemingly infinite kete of inspiration has extended to craft, installation, objects, and performance, and today, she is a member of the renowned Pacific Sisters, a Tāgata Moana art collective. She recalled her student days at Elam with Lily in 1990.

“The amazing Lily was in her fourth year when I first started, the fourth-year students from that year were so epic, they made us feel welcome and valued.”  

O’Neill paid tribute to Lily, not only for her vast and enduring influence but also for paving the way for others like herself, who followed the courageous and bold path Lily Laita and her peers had forged.

Lily passed away aged 54 on Friday 6 October surrounded by family and friends singing her out softly. She is survived by her husband and two sons.