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Eric Natuoivi was born in Matangi Village on the island of Futuna, and is both a cermic artist and the Principal of Vanuatu Teachers College. In 1986 he was training to be an art teacher. The Australian Government gave him a scholarship to study at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, where he learnt the art of pottery because it was a part of his culture that was dying out. He started with pinch pots, then did a bit of throwing using the wheel. He learnt to make coil pottery and techniques like burnishing. In 1991 he had another chance under the same scholarship program so he went back and did a Masters degree in art, choosing ceramics as one of his major subject areas. At the end of the course he had an exhibition, and had made twenty-seven pieces. Natuoivi works on the issue of gender equity and traditions of Vanuatu as kastom. He incorporates wood and pig tusks as symbols of value and family in his sculptural artforms. Eric has exhibited in annual exhibitions of contemporary art in Port Vila, and in 1998 was invited to participate with 25 Pacific artists in Creating Together at the inauguration of the Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia. In Australia, he has exhibited in Contemporary Art of the South Pacific and has represented Vanuatu in the 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery. In 2008 Eric and his wife Linda were invited by the Australian National University and the University of Wollongong as Artists-in-Residence.