Rugby player, Siale Pasa, who by chance was captivated by traditional Japanese gardening, has made a career out of landscaping beautiful gardens, “I found it more fascinating than rugby,” he said after becoming the first Tongan to be certified by the Japan Landscape Contractors Association.
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Results for Tongans Overseas
Monday 4 January 2021
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Kyoto, Japan

Friday 30 October 2020
Auckland, New Zealand
Eleven-year-old Sosaia Vea from Ha’ateiho won a speech competition in New Zealand urging Pacific students to stay in school. His headmaster at Remuera Intermediate School said Sosaia’s speech was incredibly powerful and he delivered it flawlessly and with great pride and passion.
Saturday 10 October 2020
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Queensland, Australia
A Tongan fruitpicker died after being bitten by a venomous eastern brown snake on a farm near Dimbulah, west of Cairns, in September, and relatives want his body to be flown home to Tonga.

Wednesday 16 September 2020
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Bundaberg, Australia
A Tongan fruit-picker was fined $650 after punching a backpacker from Vanuatu in a consensual fight in Australia.

Thursday 30 July 2020
Auckland, New Zealand
Frazer Mataitonga, from the ‘Akanesi Mataitonga Trust has won ‘Good as Gold’ recognition from the ASB Bank in New Zealand with an award to help him continue sending aid to Tonga, and other Pacific Island countries.
Thursday 16 July 2020
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Like the humpback whales born in Vava'u, Vaiufia Makatu'u Latu, a young Tongan mariner sailing on a tall ship, has worked her way across the Southern Ocean to reach the frozen waters of Antarctica. Now she longs to return to the Port of Refuge. By Mary Lyn Fonua
Friday 10 July 2020
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Brisbane, Australia
A new Pasifika TV and Radio service provided by the Tongan Community in Brisbane, Australia, is gaining popularity after its launch on 27 June, following months of isolation due to CoViD-19.

Thursday 18 June 2020
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Louena, a Tongan mother of two who lives in Japan, is desperate to be reunited with her babies, daughter Kathleen (5) and infant son, who are now in Tonga without her. The sudden border closure caught the family by surprise and has separated them for over three months.
Monday 27 January 2020
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Brisbane, Australia
Two members of Brisbane’s Tongan Community received Local Heroes Australia Day Community Service Awards on January 26, at Oxley Bowls Club on Brisbane’s west side, for helping improve the lives of others and building community spirit.

Tuesday 7 January 2020
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Salt Lake City, Utah
Five-thousand elementary students in the state of Utah in the United States were given winter garments by the Tony Finau Foundation – a charity founded by Tony Finau in 2015.

Monday 23 December 2019
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Brisbane, Australia
Christmas has come early for the Sia Melie Kava Club, based in Brisbane, Australia, with members enjoying the recent increase in kava import from 2kg to 4kg, and $800 in grant funding from their local council on 20 December.

Wednesday 13 November 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A landmark court case is set to take place in the American state of Nevada over whether the state’s death penalty should exempt offenders that are “mentally-ill”. The appeal case concerns Siaosi Vanisi (49), a Tongan man who is currently on death row for murder.

Thursday 24 October 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A combat specialist for the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) – Filipe Sione Malakai Latu of Manukau – was last week awarded recognition as Sailor of the Year. He's the first Pacific Islander and Tongan to be recognized as Sailor of the year by RNZN.

Wednesday 23 October 2019
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London, United Kingdom
Classical musician Caroline Elizabeth Hurrell-Grint, (21), of British-Tongan descent, has graduated from the prestigious University of Cambridge, England, with an honours degree after completing a three year degree course.

Monday 21 October 2019
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A young pharmaceutical scientist, Vincent Luscombe, who is a New Zealander of Tongan descent, has won a full post graduate Clarendon Scholarship to the prestigious Oxford University in England, where he is undertaking a DPhil in Molecular Cell Biology in Health and Disease.
Monday 6 May 2019
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Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane's Tongan Community have more than ten kava clubs who meet regularly. President of the Brisbane Tongan Community steering committee, Rev. Maile Molitika says that kava clubs are important in holding the community spirit together. They support the Australian Prime Minister's Pilot Program to ease restrictions on the importation of kava for personal use into Australia.

Wednesday 17 April 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Plus-size model, Veronica Pome’e, of Tongan descent from California, USA, is making her name as the first Polynesian model to appear in the famous Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, to be published next month.

Tuesday 26 March 2019
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Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane's Tonga Community had an opportunity to engage with Tonga's Ombudsman on March 19 and learn about his role in Tonga, while sharing their complaints and experiences as diaspora when visiting Tonga.

Tuesday 19 March 2019
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Auckland, New Zealand
In a moving gesture of solidarity, a congregation from the Pulela’a Tongan Methodist church, gathered in prayer outside the Imam Reza Mosque in Auckland on Sunday to offer its condolences to the victims of the Christchurch mosques shootings. The congregation paid tribute with flowers, hymns and tears.

Saturday 16 March 2019
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Christchurch, New Zealand
New Zealand’s annual Polyfest festival in Auckland has been cancelled following horrific mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch in which 49 muslim worshippers were murdered.
