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.
You are here
Results for Tongans Overseas
Friday 10 July 2020
Premium content
Brisbane, Australia

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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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
Premium content
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.

Thursday 14 March 2019
Premium content
Tacoma, Washington, USA
A young Tongan-American actress, dancer, and singer, Visesia Fakatoufifita (11) is reaping the benefits of her hard work having landed her first major role as Annie in ‘Annie’ at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington, at the end of last year, and cast as Cassie in the Village Theatre’s “The Passage” in Issaquah, Washington last month.

Tuesday 13 November 2018
Premium content
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Welsh rugby star Taulupe Faletau has launched a fundraiser on gofundme, to raise money for his critically-ill cousin Amanaki Taimi (21) – who is diagnosed with kidney failure.

Tuesday 23 October 2018
Premium content
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
A Tongan man in the United States, Alama 'Ulu'ave, has been awarded the prestigious Dorothy Richardson Award for his contributions to his local community in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Tuesday 25 September 2018
Everett, Washington
College softball player Lesieli Aholelei was recognised as ‘Collegiate Female Athlete of the Year’ by the Snohomish County Sports Hall of Fame in Everett, Washington on 19 September.
Wednesday 19 September 2018
Premium content
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Dr Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen, was elected by Pacific governments earlier this year to be the Director General of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA). She is one of the few Tongans and women entrusted to take charge of regional bodies in the Pacific.

Tuesday 4 September 2018
Premium content
New Zealand
New Zealanders of Tongan descent will celebrate their heritage this week in the annual “Tongan Language Week” (Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e Lea Faka-Tonga). Over 60,000 New Zealanders identified themselves as Tongans in New Zealand’s most recent census.
