Beyond The Storm-Women, Climate, And The Power of Inclusion: Unlocking Stronger Climate Strategies through Gender-Responsive Action in the Pacific and Caribbean

On the Edge: Women, Islands, and a Changing Climate In the vibrant Pacific and Caribbean regions, women are the quiet powerhouses behind both on- and off-farm work. It is they who nurture crops, tend home gardens, and harvest seafood drawing upon...

Students go beyond connecting with island culture

Christina Brigante Work experience student, Robinvale College TONGAN education supporters at Robinvale College have been encouraging Tongan students to get involved with their culture by starting a dance group named Si’i Kae Hā. Since their debut...

Crown Prince seek China support in medical, education & climate change

Crown Prince Tupouto’a ‘Ulukalala met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Xiamen on Wednesday. The meeting, held during the third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, highlights the deepening relationship between Tonga...

Pacific Dance Festival 2025 celebrates culture and connection

Pacific Dance Festival 2025. With less than a week to go, the annual Pacific Dance Festival 2025 will showcase the beauty and diversity of Pacific dance. This year promises to bring together talent from across Aotearoa New Zealand and from the...

Tonga celebrates Commonwealth Day

Tonga joined 56 nations in celebrating Commonwealth Day under the theme “Together We Thrive.” yesterday. The day emphasizes unity and cooperation among member countries. British High Commissioner to Tonga, His Excellency Mr. Philip Malone hosted...

Chinese agronomy teacher recounts teaching in Tonga, plans return

"When we first arrived at Tonga College in 2020, the school lacked agricultural facilities and equipment. Students had to carry buckets to water the vegetables," recalled Ren Aizhi, a teacher from the College of Agronomy at Liaocheng University,...

Chinese FM, Tonga's Crown Prince highlight mutual support

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Tonga's Crown Prince and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala in east China's Xiamen City on...

Mangroves and knowledge unite in Tonga’s climate fight

Tonga’s Department of Climate Change hosted a regional roadshow at Sopu mangroves, highlighting indigenous-led climate resilience. The Department of Climate Change Tonga welcomed regional experts to the Sopu mangrove conservation site this week as...

First Pacific Research Symposium launched in Tonga

Tonga is hosting the Pacific Community’s (SPC) inaugural Regional Research Symposium on Agriculture and Forestry, bringing together experts from over 30 countries. The two-day event which started yesterday at the Tanoa Dateline Hotel in Nukuʻalofa...

China opens new chapter in medical outreach on Tonga's Eua Island

The fifth batch of the Chinese medical team in Tonga poses for a photo with medical staff from the Niu'eiki Hospital on Eua Island, Tonga, May 23, 2025. /The fifth batch of the Chinese medical team in Tonga The fifth batch of the Chinese medical...

Tongan family in NZ pleads against deportation

A Tongan family in Auckland is appealing against deportation after the father was sent back to Tonga, leaving the mother and two sons, one of whom is seriously ill, in New Zealand. Tina and Tafuna Vea’ila received deportation orders last month....

Unique marine education for local kids

Before settling in Australian 15 years ago, and more recently Pacific Palms, Rachelle spent time on boats in Tonga, shot surf in the Maldives, Bali and Tahiti, travelled Costa Rica, live on the Great Barrier Reef, and did a lap around Australia,...

Why NZ must act against Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide

ANALYSIS: By Ian Powell When I despairingly contemplate the horrors and cruelty that Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to, I sometimes try to put this in the context of where I live. I live on the Kāpiti Coast in the lower North Island of...

Free Church of Tonga opens 140th conference in Vava’u

The Free Church of Tonga launched its 140th annual conference yesterday in Vava’u, marking a relocation from its usual venue in Tongatapu. Despite ongoing fuel shortages affecting transportation across Vava’u, many delegates attended the event....

GUEST BLOG: Ian Powell – Reasons for supporting ethnic cleansing, through genocide, in Palestine

When I despairingly contemplate the horrors and cruelty that Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to, I sometimes try to put in the context of where I live. I live on the Kāpiti Coast in the lower North Island. Geographically it is around the...

Culture afloat

HONOLULU (AP) – Hawaii’s American colonisers once banned the Hawaiian language in schools. Some Native Hawaiians tried to lighten their skin with lye. Many people believed Polynesian voyagers had simply lucked into finding the islands by drifting...

Tonga’s Lulutai Airlines can cover its debts, former PM Hu’akavameiliku says

“Guam is good, but it will be better,” Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero said Wednesday amid challenges facing the island in the thick of looming federal cuts that threaten to shrink the local government’s fiscal resources and jeopardise its social...

England take major step to tie down Welsh-qualified talent

Welsh-born Bath hooker Kepu Tuipulotu is set for an England A debut(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images) Welsh-qualified hooker Kepu Tuipulotu will soon be lost to Wales for at least three years after he was named in the England A squad to take on...

Court bid to stop Newington going coed fails as judge declares term ‘youth’ is gender neutral

A student from a $40,000-a-year private school in Sydney has lost his battle to keep girls out of the school, with a legal challenge against the decision to go coed failing. The student, who remains anonymous and was only known as student A, had...

King calls for reform in education and health, and accountability in govt

By Katalina Siasau HM King Tupou VI called for reform in the education sector and major improvements for the health sector, to help move the economy forward, when he opened the 2025-26 parliamentary session today, 23 May, at Parliament House in...