tapa-making: a tongan custom
Lolohea Tupouniua and her husband, Reverend Sitili Tupouniua, set up the Tongan Otaota Fahina Society in order to help teach their New Zealand-born grandchildren Tongan customs, such as tapa-making.
growing hiapo and the new generation
In this video, Lolohea explains the difficulties of importing natural materials. She also talks about her attempts to grow hiapo (paper mulberry) in New Zealand. Lolohea emphasises the importance of passing the knowledge of tapa-making on to the next generation.