Papua New Guinea's Dr Lavau Nalu says his work shines a light on the in-between spaces.
A proud Blak storyteller and researcher from Papua New Guinea, Dr Lavau Nalu says his work shines a light on the in-between spaces – between home and the diaspora, loss and joy, and the past and future.
With roots in Bukawac and Abau in PNG, Dr Lavau is a co-founder of Archive Ples, a platform reimagining his homeland’s visual and cultural narratives.
Emerging from the Tok Pisin word ples—meaning place, home, or country—the project explores how archives, memory, and image-making shape relationships to land, identity, and belonging.
Together with co-founder Samira Saunders, Dr Lavau uses film, photography, and sound, to position traditional authorship and ownership at the centre of how PNG and Pacific stories are seen and shared, he says.
“It is both a space of preservation and a site of reimagining, an evolving archive that lives, breathes, and resists,” Dr Lavau explains.
“As someone who lives between my homeland and foreign waters, I care a lot about memory – family memory, community and just things that don’t make it into official records,” Dr Lavau says.
Trained in medicine, Dr Lavau has worked at the intersection of health and culture, learning that wellbeing extends beyond the clinic and into the stories told, the traditions honoured, and the communities nurtured.
“My journey has been one of bridging worlds: the technical with the human, the global with the local, and home with diaspora,” he says.
Currently based in Washington DC, Dr Lavau has been selected as one of 30 Young Pacific Leaders (YPL) from 20 Pacific countries, to attend the YPL Navigating the digital landscape workshop, with a focus on truth, transparency and technology.
Hosted by the United States Department of State and Pacific Cooperation Broadcasting Limited (PCBL), the YPL will take part in the four-day workshop from March 10-13, 2026, in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, highlighting the power of Pacific storytelling through digital media.
The digital world is powerful, Dr Lavau says.
“I can help preserve old photos, reconnect people with their family histories, and work with our mob around the world, but the challenge is digital platforms can be extractive, where stories get taken out of context or treated like content.
“Plus, there’s also burnout from being on all the time.”
He adds the March workshop is a really great opportunity to reflect on how he tells stories in his practice.
“Also to pick up new tools and sit with questions about we collectively safeguard our futures as Pacific peoples,” Dr Lavau says.
“I’m excited to tok stori with our Pacific cousins and learn about how we are navigating the digital world.
“Aotearoa has been a big source of inspiration for Indigenous resurgence in the Pacific, so I’m stoked to be back.
“Meat pies, nice coffee and warm weather is a big bonus.”
Storytelling can take many forms, and the high calibre of successful applicants selected from over 200 candidates for the workshop, have a variety of backgrounds, from media and communications specialists to educators, researchers, health practitioners, digital entrepreneurs and visual artists.
Cohort to attend the March workshop:
- Wallace Aroita (Cook Islands)
- Julie Cooper (Niue)
- Aritika Burennara (Kiribati)
- Asia Camacho Hilario (CNMI)
- Camo Diaz Egurrola (Guåhan)
- Absalom Edwards (Marshall Islands)
- Clarriann Futai (Solomon Islands)
- Gina Ishmael (Vanuatu)
- Kreetika Kumar (Fiji)
- Gabby Langkilde (American Samoa)
- Jasmine Leota (Aotearoa New Zealand)
- Tony Leota (Samoa)
- Pita Loloma (Fiji)
- Magic Lus (Australia)
- Don Maifala (American Samoa)
- Lincy Marino (Palau)
- Michaela Montoya Gatdula (CNMI)
- Ondine Moyatea-Ferdnandez (New Caledonia)
- Dr Lavau Nalu (PNG)
- Jay Nasilasila (Fiji)
- Chelsea Pedro (Palau)
- Rain Sancher (FSM)
- Antonnia Singut (PNG)
- Penina Sua-loa (Samoa)
- Maria Tanner (Cook Islands)
- Tahnee Tchen (French Polynesia
- Esther Tetava (Cook Islands
- Pohaikealoha Worley (Hawai’i)
- Gitty Yee (Tuvalu)
- Kanoelani Toshida (Hawai’i)
Visit the Young Pacific Leaders website for more information about the US Department of State program.