Patrice Kaikilekofe was born in Noumea, New Caledonia, in 1972 to parents originally from Wallis and Futuna Islands. He works across a range of art forms including wood sculpture, printmaking, painting, mixed media and performance. Kaikilekofe enjoys working with tapa cloth, which he usually sources from Wallis and Futuna and uses either in mixed media work, or as support for a painting or print. The linocut diptych Tama/Ta'ahine (Man/Woman) was engraved by Kaikilekofe in 1999 and printed in Brisbane by the Queensland College of Art Print Workshop in 2000. The diptych was printed in an edition of eight on Arches paper; however, this particular work is uniquely printed on tapa.

The two figures (a man and a woman) are presented in a natural island setting. Their bodies bear designs of traditional tattoos inspired by their surroundings. This integration of the figure with the environment visualises Kaikilekofe's belief in the strong links that exist between nature and culture in Pacific cosmology. The figures in Tama/Ta'ahine (Man/Woman) appear to move away from the viewer and deep into their own world.