An art piece 'Fatu' by Walter Holakeituai (25) of Fanga, a student at Unitech in New Zealand has won the Speaker's Art Choice Award of $1,000 cash prize.

The Speaker of Parliament's Art Choice Award was announced on Friday, 8 November during a closing dinner of Pacific Parliaments Regional Workshop in Nuku'alofa.

Walter said 'fatu' portrays the Tongan culture in three eras, the past, present and future.

He said his art piece used weaving, a traditional art that is common in the Tongan culture and mostly seen in the production of mats.

"The decision to use weaving came from the idea that weaving reflects mats, it brings a sense of exchanged conversations ‘talanoa’ as it represents a place where meetings whether by a family, community or a large gathering is held, like the Legislative Assembly ‘Fale Alea ‘o Tonga’."

He said reading the piece from bottom to top, weaving starts with brown fibres which represents early pure native culture. The center is signified by maroon fibres illustrates Tonga’s present and shows western culture combined with the native culture in brown fibres.

On top of the art piece shows the future of Tongan culture, which was made of a fusion of both native and western culture. This shows the native culture has been influenced by the western culture and have inherited some of its part of the current culture and will likely continue to do so in the future, he said.

Open

Meanwhile, Tevita Pola'apau took first prize in the open category award judged by the public while Siaosi Taimani won the middle school category.

More than 60 artworks were submitted from local artists for the Speaker’s art competition, stated the Parliament's office in Nuku'alofa.