Ikuna Taste, Making Healthy Treats Accessible To Everyone.
Ikuna taste is more than just a business but a family with a passion to provide treats that are nourishing to our bodies and environment.
Run by Tongan Entrepreneur Pauline Fotu-Moala, Ikuna Taste offers carefully made products that is raw, organic, and natural. Their costumers rave on about their products such as cheesecakes, cookies and brownies. The icing on the cake of these delicious treats is that they’re plant based and keto friendly.
The name of the business comes from the friendly islands of Tonga. In translation “Ikuna” simply means to “Conquer”. The word is often used by Tongan’s to describe a victorious moment of overcoming a significant hurdle life.
“IKUNA is never used lightly however is often expressed with humility and gratitude towards goals and aspirations endured”, says the team at the Auckland based business.
Its proud owner Pauline started her business after finding a gap in the market for raw, organic, healthy and tasty treats in her home of South Auckland.…more
Jordan Mailata with the richest contract ever earned by an Australian in the NFL
Samoan NFL player Jordan Mailata officially signed a massive four year contract extension with the Philadelphia Eagles as first reported by ESPN - the deal is worth US $64 million which could go up to US $80 million if he meets performance bonus clauses, with US $40.85 million guaranteed.
The deal also puts him near the top of the highest earning Australian athletes and News.com.au reported it as the richest contract ever earned by an Australian in the NFL.
In his first post game press conference this season he told reporters he felt extremely blessed to receive the contract extension "It gives me an opportunity to represent my family, my country and my people".
He also opened up on where some of his money would be going to "I’ve been wanting to buy my parents a house, I can finally do that”.…more
Breaking down Covid-19 information for our Samoan aiga (in Samoan)
A group of young Samoans at the centre of one of the AOG clusters in Auckland have been working hard to break down information to their aiga and community who have tested positive for the virus.
They made this video to help the many elderly people who had tested positive to understand the process. Many of the older Pasifika members of their community were traumatised by the positive test and anxious about what would happen to them.
The young students who put the video together to help them based on Ministry of Health information, hope it may help other people with the testing, social distancing and isolation process as well.
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Click here for Covid-19 information translations in all Pasifika languages
Click this link here for an interactive map on where to find a vaccination clinic near you https://karawhiua.nz/all-clinics/
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Made by Marcus Savelio, Tali Meavale and Ullrich Von Reiche.
VEA MAFILE'O - Tongan Film maker on the rise
Mālō e Lelei, My name is Vea Mafile'o and I am Scottish, English, Māori and Tongan from Tongoleleka, Ha'apai.
We need to have a voice on screen, so Pasifika women get to see stories on screen from our perspectives. Society puts us in such a box especially women of colour, we are all so judgy (I am too) about how we should look, think, act, behave, but as we all know there is no one size fits all.
So we need to know that it's ok to be a mixture of things, to be influenced by many different things, to be made up of different cultures that all have different values, challenges and to adapt to our environment.
We have the right to chose what fits us best, there is no right or wrong way, you are never going to please everyone and so we shouldn't have to. What we go through as women most men will never ever understand, and as brown women, that's adding a whole other layer.…more
WOMEN OF THE ISLANDS - 'OFA-KI-LEVUKA GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI
'OFA-KI-LEVUKA GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI
WOMENS RIGHTS ACTIVIST & FILM MAKER
TONGAN
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Women’s rights activist, community organiser and filmmaker ‘Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki is a courageous Tongan woman who has dedicated her life to telling stories that most people sweep under the fala. She dares to tell harrowing truths of the real life struggles of women in Tonga - survivors who she crosses paths with through her grassroots work to end violence against women and girls.
'Ofa is the Director of the Women & Children Crisis Center (WCCC) in Tonga. A space where women can turn to in a time of need. 'Ofa and her team of 25 don’t just wait for survivors to show up to doors, they work tirelessly on outreach and prevention.
The WCCC team carry out their prevention work through their concept of FOFOLA E FALA KAE FAI HA TALANGA. This means rolling out the mat and holding conversation with communities so that they can carefully unpack lives realities female survivors of violence in Tonga. Ofa and her team also use what they call a ULOA approach.…more
"I Am Lupe" a book dedicated to little Pasifika girls
Meet talented author of "I Am Lupe" and proud Tongan... Sela Atiola!
Sela Atiola is a Tongan writer residing in Australia. Her mother is from Nukunuku and her father from Lofanga, Fakakai and Mango in Ha’apai. She’s a mother and author of children’s book “I Am Lupe” that came out this year. Her writing career is inspired by her experiences as a Pacific woman and passion for meaningful representation of Pacific people.
This Tongan storyteller is a big believer in Pacific people writing their own stories. She sees value in using storytelling to empower our Pacific children, highlighting Pasifika excellence and seeing the power in lived experience. Representation in children’s literature is of great importance to society and Sela is willing to be a positive contributor to this change.
Her book “I am Lupe” explores themes of belonging, heritage and confidence in individuality. "I am Lupe" has moved readers around the world and is now available for purchase from huge literary spaces such as Target, Amazon and more.…more
Tongan TikTok Highlights
Our TikTok round-up this week is dedicated to #TongaTok in honor of Tongan Language Week!
Here we have our fave content this week from Tongan tiktok accounts that fall in to the catergories of Dancing, Adornments, Humour, Traditions and Singing...
Tongan Dancing
Tongan Adornments
Tongan Humour
Tongan Traditions
Tongan Singing
Community Finders – A partnership based on community safety and wellbeing
Via Pasifika Medical Association Group
Pasifika Futures (PFL) - the Whānau Ora commissioning agency for Pacific families – in partnership with The Fono, mobilized a team of Covid-19 “Community Finders” to help stop the spread of the contagious Delta variant within the Pacific community.
“The role of the community finder is to locate an individual referral we receive from the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) because they are a positive case or a close contact”, says Whānau Ora Manager for The Fono, Europa Kupu, who has been working closely with the PFL team to manage the Community Finders initiative.
She says the role is challenging when there are difficulties getting in contact with an individual after the usual methods (phone/email) are exhausted. In these circumstances, other means of reaching out such as home visits are used but with Alert Level 4 restrictions.…more
15yr old Samoan producer Jarom Su'a featured on Drakes 'Certified Lover Boy' album
Recently Canadian born rapper Drake released his sixth studio album "Certified Lover Boy" and amongst the list of producers on the album, is a young 15 year old Samoan producer - Jarom Su'a.…more
Supporting schools affected by the outbreak with agility and purpose
Via Pasifika Medical Association Group
When the current Delta outbreak affected the schools of De La Salle College and McAuley High School, there was no hesitation by Pasifika Futures (PFL) - the Whānau Ora commissioning agency for Pacific families - to reach out and offer their support.
Families were instructed to self-isolate immediately so the school community needed support with food supplies, utility relief and mental health care to ensure they safely and comfortably remain in their bubbles.
Deputy Principal for De La Salle College, Mr Elton Charles, said the school was grateful that PFL made significant efforts to quickly mobilize support to the students and their families.
“It was a curveball for the families. We had a large number of families mainly needing food support,” he said.
Mr Charles said the school immediately communicated the support that PFL were offering and were then inundated with responses from families.…more