A large group of women from Australia have arrived in Tonga to celebrate five Fakafetongi Koloa events with women's groups in Vava'u, that will likely result in over $234,000 worth of exchanges.

The Fakafetongi Koloa, a barter system of exchanging goods between members of two groups, is a successful Tongan system of exchanging traditional manufactured items for goods or cash.

Twenty six members of the Manava'ofa, a women's group from Sydney, Australia, arrived in Tonga on December 12 and left for Vava'u this morning December 13.

In Vava'u the group will meet their counterparts in the villages of Talihau, Tefisi, and Leimatu'a, and with two communities in the main town of Neiafu to carry out their Fakafetongi Koloa.

The visitors and their counterparts have already have some kind of understanding on the particular kind of a woven mats, ngatu – tapa cloth, bags, ta'ovala or any specific woven materials that have been made by the women of Vava'u, that are available to exchange with whatever their counterparts have brought from Australia.

Lady Maria, the chairperson of the Manava'ofa Women Group said that she first took a group of women from Australia to Vava'u for a Fakafetongi Koloa with the women of the village of Okoa in 2007, and it was a success. The visitors were happy with the exchanges, "and they left the village about $100,000 pa'anga. This time the Manava'ofa Women could leave about $234,000 in Vava'u for Christmas," she said

Lady Maria, a well-known personality among the Tongan community in Sydney, is in the business of fashion and design, and she is planning to open a boutique in Nuku'alofa soon.