Niki Hastings-McFall was born in Titirangi, West Auckland, NZ. Much of her work is inspired by her Samoan heritage, discovered when she first met her father in 1992. She trained as a jeweller, and has a degree in Visual Arts from the University of Auckland at Manukau School of Visual Arts.  Both her jewellery and her larger assemblage works directly  reference her urban environment whilst maintaining strong connections to Polynesian culture.
 
Much of her earlier work is a response to the stereotyping which so often surrounds the South Pacific. As a Pakehaa / Samoan she uses the iconic to question the myth as a  way of exploring the liminal space which both separates and unites the different cultures that represent her place within a contemporary Pacific context.
 

Aesthetically speaking some of the work she is presently engaged with is not necessarily overtly Polynesian. However it is still generated by her signature understanding of past and present Pacific material culture twinned with an urban sensibility of post colonial Aotearoa
 
Hastings- McFall has exhibited extensively during the 15 years of her practice both nationally and overseas in Australia, France,  the USA, South America  and the UK. Her work is held in public and private collections in NZ (Auckland Art Gallery,Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland University,  Chartwell, Victoria University, Auckland Museum etc) and internationally (British Museum UK, Museum fur Volkekund Germany, Queensland Art Gallery Australia, Tjibaou Centre New Caledonia etc)

Niki Hastings-McFall’s work features in the exhibition Welcome Signs.