Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga, April 16, 2008. The Tonga Red Cross Society and Miss Neti Taumoepeau (otherwise known in the music realm as 676) are happy to announce their joint venture in the production of her upcoming Tongan album which will be sold for the beneficiary of the Tonga Red Cross Society. 676 has agreed to a production of 500 limited edition CDs which will be sold to the general public with all proceeds to be donated to the Tonga Red Cross Society. (more…)

Dr Teena J. Brown Pulu
“You can tell I’m from Kolonga by the way I do things!”

Photograph 1: Utu-longo-a’a, Kolonga village rugby team in Auckland. The Kolonga forwards pack walking off the field from their game against Leimatu’a village in the Auckland Tongan Rugby Tournament 2007 at Marist Ardmore. This tournament is played annually November-December and is organised for village, chuch-based, ex-high school and neighbourhood teams of Tongan rugby players living across the four cities – North Shore, Waitakere, Auckland, Manukau – which constitute the greater Auckland Region.

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On 27 November, 2007, the High Commissioner of Tonga to the UK, H.E. DR Sione Ngongo Kioa and Mrs Victorina Kioa invited the Tongan community in Britain to meet the Prime Minister of Tonga, HON. DR Feleti Vaka ‘Uta Sevele, by hosting a reception at the official residence of the Tongan High Commission in the UK.

The Prime Minister addressed Tongans and answered questions on developments in Tonga including dual nationality and
land rights for women.

“Part of my job as Prime Minister and my colleagues in Government is to meet the Tongan community in Tonga and overseas to find out what they would like to see happening in Tonga and exchange ideas” explained Dr Feleti Vaka ’Uta Sevele. (more…)

“I have been wanting to record an album like this for a long time and finally it’s coming true” says Neti Taumoepeau of 676. Her first full-length Tongan album is set to be released this Spring with all proceeds from the record sales to be donated to the Tongan Red Cross.

676’s Tongan album pays homage to some of the most influential and universally respected musicians and song writers from her homeland of Tonga, among them are the late Queen Salote Tupou III, Tu’imala, and many more. “It was very important for me to keep to the authentic traditional Tongan sound and lyrics while recording this album as a way to show respect for these amazing music artists who transformed Tongan music into a form of poetry and art” says Taumoepeau.

Download Mo’ui Honge Ifo (right click and choose save link as)

Mo’ui Honge Ifo- (more…)

February 08 & 09, 2008

University of Utah

Press Release

For Immediate Release:

Salt Lake City, Utah.  January 22, 2007.  The University of Utah’s American West Center will be hosting an international, interdisciplinary conference on Pacific Worlds and the American West on February 8th and 9th, 2008.  As the home to one of the largest and oldest Pacific Island communities in the United States, Salt Lake City provides an ideal location for this interdisciplinary gathering. Over 70 scholars from around the Pacific, the US and Europe will consider the intersecting histories of these two regions and the people that call them home. The highlight of the conference will be keynote speeches from four of the most renowned scholars of the Pacific: Dr. Haunani Kay Trask, a prominent Hawaiian native leader and activist; Dr. Linda Tuhiwai-Smith, a leading Pacific indigenous researcher; Dr. Peter Brunt, an authority in Pacific Art and tattoos; and Dr. Vicente Diaz, an expert in traditional Micronesian seafaring practices.   (more…)

Three new books - Veimau, Faiva ta`anga and `Aati `o e Lea Tonga Heliaki – on aspects of Tongan society, history and culture - where a leading Tongan anthropologist, historian, poet and art critic Dr `Okusitino Māhina (Anthropology) was actively involved in their production - were launched at the recent official opening of Tūtoatasi Studyhall and formal establishment of Vava`u Academy for Critical Inquiry & Applied Research, Tāpinga`amaama Campus, in the village of Tefisi-Nga`akau on the island of Vava`u in Tonga, Saturday 1st September, 2007. These are part of the broader educational and developmental activities carried out at the newly-formed Dr `Okusitino Māhina Education Centre. (more…)

It is towards the end of another year, the time during which most local churches in Tonga and abroad belonging to the Methodist tradition (i.e. Free Wesleyan; Free Church of Tonga, Church of Tonga, Constitutional Church of Tonga, Tokaikolo Fellowship) are preoccupied once again with the annual fundraising festival for the church or the “katoanga misinale”. I wish to offer some brief reflections on how best to understand this annual festival from a biblical perspective since it seems to me that it has been invested with much confusion and misunderstandings. Much of the confusion lies in what people think the katoanga misinale is, so let me tell you what it is not. (more…)

‘ĀTEA, MOANA AND VANUA: Voices from the Brown Edge was co-edited by Dr ‘Okusitino Māhina (Anthropology), with three postgraduate students Nuhisifa Seve-Williams (PhD, Education), Alovale Faaiuaso (MA, Pacific Studies) and Davina Hosking (MA, Geography) and foreword by Rangi Moeka’a, formerly an arts students in the 1960s and later a lecturer in Cook Islands Maori in the Centre for Pacific Studies since early 1990s, both at the University of Auckland.

This new book, co-authored by the co-editors and others, was specifically written for the celebrations of the 10^th anniversary of the Auckland University Pacific Islands Students Association (AUPISA) Inc., beginning on Thursday 18 and ending Sunday 21 October, 2007. It kicked off with the launch of the book, followed by a one-day conference and an evening of community seminar and other activities of both educational and social significance. The Vice Chancellor, Professor Stuart N. McCutcheon, and some senior members, of the University of Auckland, were in attendance and support of some of the events. (more…)

April 21, 1913 - January 11, 2008

Audio dedication by grandson Dr. Tevita O. Ka’ili

Sign the guest book.

Our beloved father, grandfather and great grandfather Tonga Poteki Malohifo’ou, son of Sione Pota Uaine and ‘Anapesi Lakalaka Ratu Umu passed away peacefully on Friday, January 11, 2008 at the age of 94. He was born on April 21, 1913 in Neiafu, Vava’u, in the Kingdom of Tonga, where he met and married the love of his life ‘Ana Tamutamu Toki on March 03, 1937, and were later sealed for time and all eternity in the New Zealand Temple on December 29, 1966. Tonga dedicated his life to the things he cherished most, which were his family, his membership in the LDS church, and the opportunities to be in the service of his fellow beings. His greatest treasures were the moments shared with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the unconditional love he shared with wife and children, and his many church callings, but especially the blessing of serving as a sealer in the Salt Lake City Temple for 30 years. We will miss his gentle voice, his caring spirit, his acts of kindness, and his tender smile. Although he has left this world his legacy will always be imprinted in our hearts! (more…)