Results for Arts & Entertainment

Five Tongan sisters from Hawaii – Alexsia (19), Tiueti (16), Lela (15), Elisiva (14) and Nini (10) – were guests on America’s popular Ellen Degeneres Show yesterday, where the singers each received a cheque of $10,000 USD. The group are all daughters of Walter and Telesia Tonga, who immigrated from Tonga to Hawaii.

Tonga will host the 2018 Miss Pacific Islands pageant, which is usually held around the first week of December.

Traditional dances were performed by young students from various Government Primary Schools in the Nuku'alofa district on November 22, to promote and preserve Tonga's traditional dances.

Story telling through the modern medium of film allows different islander voices to be heard together, Sisi'uno Helu, told the audience at the opening of the Nuku'alofa Film Festival last night. While Oceania cultures are often seen as being rigidly conservative, the festival offers two more nights of films that show these cultures are not inflexible.

Actor and story-teller Sam Neill, completed several days filming in Tongatapu on October 2, for a landmark documentary that will be broadcast in 2018. This 6-part documentary series explores the three voyages of Captain James Cook using a contemporary journey across the Pacific Ocean.

American cultural and educational documentaries for public screening will be showcased in Tonga between 8-11 September in Nuku’alofa, organized by a group from the American Embassy in Suva, Fiji.

Tonga's Queen Nanasipau'u will travel to Hawaii on 1 August with a group of Kanokupolu dancers who will perform at the Asia Pacific Dance Festival in Honolulu.

Ten Miss Galaxy contestants showcased their spectacular "own creations" in the pageant’s first judging event last night, 12 July, at the Queen Salote Memorial Hall. Through their creative outfits, the contestants urged people to recycle material and ensure rubbish is thrown in bins or taken to the dumpsite to keep the country clean.

Emerging Tongan fashion designer, Mele Tamanilo (32) has transformed the traditional kiekie, normally made of plant fibres, into a sparkling warrior-princess-inspired accessory that Tongans worldwide are embracing with pride.