Celebrating 11 years of Small Island Big Song.

A Taiwan–Australia–Netherlands co-production.

Developed over three years, One Ocean was selected for NCAF's Art for the Future program, premiered and co-produced by the Holland Festival in 2025, and received the prestigious Impact Award at the 2026 Asia Pacific Arts Awards, presented by the Australian Government.

Inspired by Taiwan's oceanic connections, leading artists from Madagascar, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Mauritius and Taiwan unite through music, dance and film, creating a groundbreaking performance that reconnects ancient ocean routes while reflecting on our changing ocean.

  Pre-talk  
2026/11/11(Wed)19:00 Play House 2F Lobby

  Creative and Production Team  

Composer, Lyrics, Vocals, Guitar, Hand Drum & Dance｜Abus TANAPIMA

Composer, Lyrics, Vocals, Kabosy, Ravann, Calabash, Marravan, Triangle & Dance｜Emlyn MARIMUTU

Composer, Lyrics, Vocals, Shakers, Ipu & Dance｜Olivia FOA'I

Garamut, Kundu, Conch, Kwakunba & Vocals｜Airileke

Composer, Lyrics, Vocals, Kabosy, Jejy, Valiha, Sodina, shakers & Dance｜Sammy ANDRIAMALALAHARIJAONA

Choreagraphy, Dance, Ravann, Calabash, Marravan, Triangle & Vocals｜Mathieu JOSEPH

Composer, Lyrics, Vocals, Pate, Kundu, Kabosy Bass & Dance｜Eve NIKOLAO

Supported by National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan & Creative Australia

A co-production with Holland Festival

  Team Introduction  

Executive Producer & Co-founder｜Taiwan｜BaoBao CHEN
CHEN has led Small Island Big Song from an initial idea into a large-scale international arts project spanning more than a dozen countries. Over the past decade, she has produced and managed international co-productions across music, film, and performing arts, co-curating education and outreach programs with 43 performing arts centres across the United States and serving as producer of the Small Island Big Song documentary. She has also produced the project's international tours across four continents and 20 countries, with over one hundred performances reaching more than 250,000 live audience members.
She is a 2023–25 Taiwan Fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) and has been selected for the 2026 Professional Fellows Program of the U.S. Department of State.
In 2013, she gained international attention as a finalist for Australia's "Best Jobs in the World," which led her to begin building her social media platform, now followed by more than 130,000 people. As a public speaker, she has delivered talks in both Mandarin and English at international platforms including TEDx, the United Nations COP Climate Conferences, APAP and ISPA in the United States, CINARS in Canada, WOMEX in Europe, Peace Boat in Japan, the Green School in Bali, Stanford University and more,
 
Visual & Sound Designer & Co-founder｜Australia｜Tim COLE
COLE is a music producer and filmmaker from Melbourne, Australia, who has spent the past two decades working on cross-cultural arts projects across Europe, the United States, and the Asia-Pacific. His work spans music, film, and theatre.
He developed his interdisciplinary practice while studying film at the University of Melbourne by day and producing music by night. He has worked as stage sound and visual designer for Australian Aboriginal singer Archie ROACH, directed the documentary Vanuatu Women's Water Music, and produced several albums for the Australian band Not Drowning, Waving, including album Tabaran, collaborating with musicians of Papua New Guinea. He also served as sound designer and theatre sound mixer for the acclaimed Australian performing arts company Circus Oz, touring internationally for eight years, including seasons on Broadway in New York and at London's Southbank Centre.
His long engagement with Indigenous arts led to an invitation to work in central Australia as Senior Music Producer at CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association). While recording Indigenous songlines and hearing the 5th IPCC climate change report, he and BaoBao were inspired to found Small Island Big Song. COLE now lives in Taiwan with CHEN and their daughter, Eleven.
 
Stage Director｜Australia｜Nigel JAMIESON
JAMIESON is an Australian director and large-scale theatre creator renowned for major international productions. He served as Creative Director of the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games, the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, and the Opening Ceremony for Glasgow as European Capital of Culture. He has also been Artistic Director for numerous cross-cultural theatre productions in Australia and the United Kingdom, and has worked extensively with organisations such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and the Indigenous dance company Chooky Dance.
He is known for integrating film and live performance to create powerful narrative-driven stage works. Examples include Mountain, created with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Tipping Point, a work responding to climate change and inspired by the Copenhagen Climate Summit. He frequently collaborates with Indigenous artists, including Boorna Waanginy: The Trees Speak, created with the Noongar people of Western Australia for Perth Festival, and Buŋgul, a large-scale production co-produced by several Australian festivals centred on the music of the late Northern Territory Indigenous musician Gurrumul.
Before the creation of Small Island Big Song, the last theatre production COLE worked on was directed by JAMIESON. After many years of dialogue, he first joined the project during field research in Vanuatu in 2019, and later participated in the first creative workshop with the artists in 2022.
 
Stage Designer｜Taiwan｜Austin WANG
WANG is a Taiwanese stage designer whose work spans dance, theatre, and interdisciplinary performance. With more than three decades of experience in theatre production, he has designed for numerous major works, including Moon Water and Rice by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, and tiaen tiamen by Bulareyaung Dance Company. His designs are known for their refined spatial sensibility and strong visual language, developed through long-term collaborations with leading choreographers and theatre makers.
From 2013 to 2024, WANG served as Director of the Taipei Performing Arts Center, where he played a key role in advancing the development and international exchange of Taiwan's performing arts. In recognition of his contributions to the field, he received the 18th National Award for Arts.
 
Performer, Songwriter | Abus TANAPIMA - Amis & Bunun heritage, Taiwan
Raised in Kaohsiung and Hualien, Abus is of Bunun and Amis heritage. Influenced by Western music from an early age, she builds her sound on an R&B foundation, blending reggae and Afro-Cuban elements while moving fluidly between high-energy tracks and emotive ballads.
Writing in the Bunun language, she merges Indigenous language with contemporary styles, reimagining traditional melodies into modern forms. Her work draws from everyday life, emotion, and personal conviction, delivered through a fearless and sincere voice. On stage, she is known for her powerful vocals and commanding presence.
Her debut album ABUS (2022) received multiple Golden Melody Award nominations. Her second album QUEENDOWN (2024) earned six nominations, with "Bunun" winning Best Single Producer.
Abus first connected with Small Island Big Song in 2022 through her own initiative and officially joined the project in 2024. She has since participated in the One Ocean creative workshop in Bali and performed at the Holland Festival. As one of the youngest members of the ensemble, she brings remarkable vocal power and stage presence to both the creative process and live performances.
 
Co-Music Director, Performer, Songwriter｜Emlyn MARIMUTU - Kreole heritage, Mauritius
Emlyn MARIMUTU is a singer and dancer from Mauritius leading a new generation of Sega music artists across the Indian Ocean. Featured on CNN, she is part of a wave of performers reclaiming and celebrating the unique rhythms and cultural heritage of the region. Playing traditional instruments such as the Ravann, triangle, and Maravann, she has carved out a remarkable path as a female artist in a predominantly male music scene. In 2019, she won the Konpoz to Lamizik Grand Prize.
Written with a reactive pen and sung in Mauritian Kreole, her songs express her deep concerns for the environment of her island home. Emlyn brings the infectious grooves of Sega through the powerful rhythms of the Ravann, a traditional frame drum rooted in the musical traditions of African and Madagascan communities during the era of the slave trade.
Small Island Big Song first visited Mauritius in 2016. Emlyn MARIMUTU joined the project in 2020 and has since become a leading voice in both the albums and live performances, touring across four continents with the ensemble.
 
Performer, Songwriter｜Olivia FOA'I - Tokelau & Tuvalu heritage, Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Olivia FOA'I is a singer-songwriter and dancer, and the daughter of Opetaia FOA'I, founder of the renowned Polynesian band Te Vaka. She began performing with the band at the age of two and joined the vocal lineup at eleven, touring to more than 40 countries worldwide. She is also one of the featured vocalists on the soundtracks of Disney's animated films Moana and Moana 2.
Her 2019 solo album Candid won Best Pacific Album at the New Zealand Music Awards and Best Pacific Female Artist at the Pacific Music Awards. Her second album, Tūmau Pea (2023), again received Best Pacific Female Artist and Best Pacific Language Song at the Pacific Music Awards.
COLE and CHEN first collaborated with Olivia Foa'i at the Sydney Opera House in 2013. She joined the Small Island Big Song ensemble for the first time in 2023 at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, and has since toured with the project across Asia and the United Arab Emirates.
 
Performer, Songwriter｜Sammy ANDRIAMALALAHARIJAONA - Merina heritage, Madagascar
At a time when electric guitars and drum kits were becoming the dominant sounds of popular music, Sammy was in his attic handcrafting traditional instruments from Madagascar, and insisting on playing them on stage. His efforts came to the notice of the UK's world music scene, which led his band Tarika Sammy gaining international recognition; in the 1990s TIME magazine listed them among the Top Ten Bands in the World, alongside U2. The band first toured Taiwan in 1999.
Now in his sixties, he retains a youthful spirit. His backpack often contains bits of clay and glue, and broken instruments seem to come back to life in his hands. More than a national treasure of Madagascar, he is also a legendary figure dedicated to preserving Austronesian musical traditions.
Small Island Big Song first collaborated with Sammy during its visits to Madagascar in 2016 and 2017. Since then, he has toured with the project to nearly twenty countries.
 
Co-Music Director, Performer｜Airileke - Motu heritage, Papua New Guinea
Born in Australia with roots in Papua New Guinea, Airileke grew up between Papua New Guinea and the northern coast of Australia. A musical pioneer and advocate for cultural freedom, he moves fluidly across musical worlds without boundaries. Airileke is a percussionist, producer, composer, and cultural activist. He also served as Co-Artistic Director of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea.
A master drummer, Airileke draws deeply from Melanesian drum traditions while also working actively within contemporary beat production.
He has been collaborating with COLE for more than a decade. Since Small Island Big Song visited Papua New Guinea in 2016, he has contributed to the project's albums and film, and has toured with the ensemble across the United States and Europe.
 
Choreographer, Performer｜Mathieu JOSEPH - Kreole heritage, Mauritius
Mathieu Joseph is a professional dancer and choreographer from Mauritius, and co-founder and Artistic Director of LES FRÈRES JOSEPH LTD. He began dancing street styles at the age of 14 in the suburbs of Port Louis and was discovered by renowned choreographer Stephen BONGARÇON. He soon joined Bongarçon's SRDance Company, and through dedication and discipline won the Gold Medal for Dance at the 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie.
Since then, he has collaborated widely with various dance companies and productions. Among his works is Di Sel, a choreography paying tribute to the salt workers of Mauritius, which again earned him the Gold Medal for Dance at the 2017 Jeux de la Francophonie.
Since joining Small Island Big Song in 2023, Mathieu Joseph has brought powerful choreography and dynamic movement to the production, touring with the ensemble across the United States and Europe in nearly 50 performances.

Performer, Songwriter｜Eve NIKOLAO - Samoan heritage, Samoa
Eve NIKOLAO is a Samoan multi-instrumentalist, singer, and performer whose work draws deeply from the musical traditions of her homeland. In 2013, after completing her studies in Aotearoa/New Zealand, she returned to Samoa to reconnect with her fa'asinomaga—her cultural identity. This personal journey immersed her in the rhythms and harmonies of Samoan music, from traditional Pate log drumming to contemporary songwriting.
She first gained national recognition after winning Samoan Idol, followed by the release of a groundbreaking album and performances across Samoa. Her music and stage presence soon led to international invitations, including appearances at the Brisbane Festival and the Women of the World concert series.
Eve NIKOLAO first joined Small Island Big Song at the 2025 Holland Festival, and has since toured across Europe with the ensemble.