Results for Arts & Entertainment

The Matariki Art Trail exhibition featuring work by Tongan and New Zealand artists, including Visesio Siasau and Serene Tay, was launched by New Zealand High Commissioner HE Tiffany Babington last night at the Waterfront Restaurant and Lodge, Ma’ufanga.

A Wesley College student (Year 13), Sione Teutau, has won the Best Actor award for Auckland South and East, in a national drama festival, for playing a nurse in a short performance of a scene from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, The judge said that Sione's nurse was played confidently and with a delightful sense of fun and comic timing, and in homage to Shakespeare’s original male actors.

Australian photographer, Jasmine Carey has won USD$120,000 in the HIPA International Photography Award for her amazing photo of a humpback whale mother sleeping beside her two-week-old calf, in Vava’u, Tonga. The rich award attracts photographic entries from all over the world. Jasmine's winning image on the theme ‘Water’ has gained worldwide publicity, raising Tonga’s profile for whale watching and swimming activities. By Eleanor Gee.

A new Pacific feature film called The Legend of Baron To’a, starring Australian-Tongan actor Talia’uli (Uli) Latukefu, and New Zealand-Tongan actor John Tui opens today, in New Zealand cinemas.

Beau Louis Takapu, a Tongan-American, debuted his first solo clothing collection in a fashion show held at Fale Pasifika in Auckland on January 31.


The New Zealand Youth Choir held a special performance in Nuku’alofa, during their first stop in a Pacific Tour to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

Fifth Harmony singer Dinah Jane will headline her first tour as a solo artist in the United States this month.

There are many different ways of being Tongan, say creative sisters Vea and Emily Mafile'o, in Nuku‘alofa today, talking about their work in photography and film making and what it means for young people of Tongan heritage to grow up in New Zealand. The sisters are part of two interesting events open to the public this week in Nuku‘alofa. Together, the Ancient Futures Symposium and Nuku'alofa Film Festival are featuring an unprecedented number of artistic and creative events to be held at the Tanoa Hotel. By Mary Lyn Fonua.

Tonga’s first ever Mr World contestant, 24-year-old Mikaele 'Ahomana, a talented musician, has won a spot in the top 12 contestants in the pageant’s grand final to be held on 24 August in Manilla, Philippines.