Results for Pacific Islands

Over 100 Chinese Tongans, who went to China for the Spring Festival earlier this year, would like to return to Tonga, said the Chinese Ambassador to Tonga, Cao Xiaolin, in Nuku'alofa today. There are unofficial reports circulating that Tonga may extend its international border closure beyond 12 June.

Dressed in a Tongan designed shirt, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus dedicated his closing speech of the 73rd World Health Assembly in Switzerland on 19 May, to a Tongan nurses choir, who were supposed to perform at the conference but were unable to travel due to coronavirus restrictions.

No-fishing areas established around Tonga are showing they are helping coral reef ecosystems to recover, says the Special Management Area Report 2020, compiled by the Ministry of Fisheries in partnership with Australia's James Cook University recently. Damaged reefs might take 20 years for full recovery.

CoViD-19 information for people throughout the Pacific is being compiled by a new FSPI website that provides links to relevant articles on the virus.

‘Ata, Tonga’s southernmost island, is a long way away, separated from Tongatapu by 160 km of open ocean. ‘Ata’s place in the history books is well established. It was here, in June 1863, that the whaling ship Grecian under Captain Thomas McGrath anchored off the northeastern shore and only village, Kolomaile. The details of the events that followed are sketchily recorded, but the consequence is notorious. A large number of ‘Ata’s residents were lured on to the ship, captured, and then sold to a Peruvian slaver for transport to Lima. None were to return. In the aftermath of the raid, and under the orders of Tupou I, the remaining ‘Atans were resettled on ‘Eua, in a village they again named Kolomaile. By David V. Burley.

Pasifika populations are particularly at risk for CoViD-19, where the risk of hospitalisation is seven times higher than for NZ European and Other ethnic groups, warns a New Zealand report on worse case scenario modelling.

Australian Volunteers were flown out of Tonga on a charter flight organised by the Australian Volunteers International (AVI) on 25 March, confirmed the Australian High Commission (AHC) in Tonga today.

Tonga's stunning ngatu provide testimony to the considerable antiquity of Tongan artistic designs. Variation of the ngatu patterns, and the way these are organized, had been inscribed on the surfaces of Lapita pottery in Tonga almost 3,000 years ago. By David V. Burley.

Air New Zealand halted trading today as it announced capacity cuts across its global network due to the impact of COVID-19 on travel demand.