Two Tongan women have been awarded the prestigious New Zealand Order of Merit for their services to the Tongan language education and the Pacific community in New Zealand.
Miss Fane Ketu'u, an educator and mentor dedicated to the preservation of the Tongan language, art, and culture in New Zealand, is awarded the NZ Order of Merit for her services to Tongan language education.
Fane has advocated for the preservation of Lea Faka-Tonga (the study of Tongan language) for more than 40 years, teaching in schools, communities and churches.
She is the Tonga Stage Coordinator for the ASB Polyfest, a voluntary role she began in 2005. During that time, she has taught more than 40,000 students Tongan dance, music, and language through their performances at the annual festival.
She has worked with NZQA and the Ministry of Education on the development of Lea Faka-Tonga Achievement Standards, and helped establish Tongan language as a formal subject in NCEA and tertiary education. She has supported the Ministry for Pacific Peoples' Pacific Language portfolio, particularly through their effort to preserve and maintain Lea Faka-Tonga and cultural performances.
As a teacher and cultural coordinator at James Cook High School, she has created inclusive cultural events like MANAFest to support emerging cultural groups at the school. She teaches evening classes to provide further learning opportunities that support underachieving students, and supports wider family groups to reconnect with Lea Faka-Tonga.
Fane has been a Justice of the Peace since 2014.
NZ Order of Merit
Kathleen Tuai-Ta'ufo'ou
Mrs Kathleen Tuai-Ta'ufo'ou has supported the Pacific community in the health and social services sector for more than 20 years. She is awarded the NZ Order of Merit for her services to the Pacific community.
Kathleen joined SIAOLA, the social service arm of the Vahefonua Tonga o Aotearoa (Methodist Church of New Zealand), as Executive Director in 2016 and became CEO in 2021.
Under her leadership, SIAOLA pioneered initiatives in family violence prevention, Whãnau Ora, mentoring, and financial literacy. SIAOLA successfully guided more than 100 families into home ownership and assisted 1,500 people to secure driver licenses. During the COVID-19 pandemic and North Island severe weather events in 2023, she established a Tongan-focused food hub in Ellerslie, facilitating 14,800 vaccinations and distributing 16,500 food parcels to more than 100,000 people.
While CEO of the Fonua Ola Network, she unified eight Pacific organisations to streamline regional service delivery. She led the social and health accreditation processes for Vaka Tautua, Fonua Ola, and SIAOLA. Her governance roles include the Methodist Alliance Steering Committee and Te Whatu Ora National Women's Screening Pacific Reference Group.
She has provided Pacific representation in policy development for the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, Social Development, and Police advisory groups.
Kathleen has served on the Law Revision Committee to the Methodist Church of New Zealand and the Executive Committee of Social Service Providers Aotearoa.
The New Zealand Order of Merit is released on the occasion of the celebration of the King's Birthday (Charles II)
