Teena Brown Pulu
Biographic Data
| ID | 3437115 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Teena Brown Pulu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Teena Brown |
| FAMILY NAME | Pulu |
| SIGNATURE | PULU T B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Auckland University of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3707-1569 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
The sea has (no) borders
In response to the socio-economic pressures of climate change, seen locally in declining inshore fisheries and deteriorating coral reefs, forty-nine coastal villages across the small island nation of Tonga have established community-managed marine protected areas to regulate fishing and sustain marine life. This visual essay offers behind-the-scenes reflections on creating short documentaries with and for the coastal villages of Tefisi and Makave…
Shared Visions
The authors are collaborators on Sylvester Tonga’s doctoral documentary, filmed with the weavers and farmers who sustain these agricultural traditions in Leimatu’a, his village of origin in the Vava’u Islands of Tonga. An archipelago of fifty-one atolls, Vava’u lies 300 kilometres north of Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa. Using screengrabs and photographs made by the production crew with the Leimatu’a contributors, they consider how Sylvester’s cultu…
Le Auala Masani (2025)
This collaborative project brings together doctoral student Fritz Filisi, supervisor Teena Brown Pulu, video producer Nikolase Meredith, and independent camera operator Rewi Amoamo, all of whom trace their ancestry to Sāmoa. Together, they produced a Sāmoan language mini-documentary for social media audiences exploring the auala funerary tradition. This ancient custom, performed upon the death of a high chief, involves the gathering of tulāfale (…
These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For”
The authors are collaborators on Sylvester Tonga’s doctoral documentary, filmed with the weavers and farmers who sustain these agricultural traditions in Leimatu’a, his village of origin in the Vava’u Islands of Tonga. An archipelago of fifty-one atolls, Vava’u lies 300 kilometres north of Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa. Using screengrabs and photographs made by the production crew with the Leimatu’a contributors, they consider how Sylvester’s cultu…
Migrant women’s views of secondary education in Tonga
This article contextualises interview data selected from Fe’aomoengalu Kautai’s online talanoa with Tongan migrant women in Auckland for her Master of Arts thesis. From the women’s discussions of their secondary education experiences in Tonga, their place of birth, a particular theme emerged. They perceived the structure of Tonga’s secondary education system to be weighted heavily on senior students passing state examinations in the English langu…
Relational Entanglements in the Anthropocene Islands
Understanding the Anthropocene in island environments means looking at the emotional entanglements between island populations and their metropolitan diasporas in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and the United States
Stuck in India
Our paper reflects on creating a short documentary in 2021 centred around an online discussion, which the second author recorded with three Punjabi migrants. At the time of being interviewed, these migrants had New Zealand temporary work and study visas and were stuck in Punjab, India, for more than a year since the New Zealand government announced on 19 March 2020 the international border would be closed indefinitely due to Covid-19. The documen…
Making a Punjabi language documentary film in New Zealand for Punjabi and non-Punjabi audiences
The second author interviewed three Punjabi Sikhs in South Auckland on camera in the Punjabi language, and two Punjabi Muslims in Lahore via an online video call where one participant responded in Punjabi and the other in the Urdu language. Their discussions were edited and subtitled in English for a thirteen minute documentary film screened at a migration research symposium and also released on the internet via Punjabi, Indian, and Pakistani mul…
Big bananas in Kiribati
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu and Richard Pamatatau
Is Tonga ready for Paris
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Who's got water lapping at the door
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Tonga's metaphoric hangings
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Village day in diaspora
An opinion piece by Dr Brown Pulu
New Zealand's climate refugee debate grows louder
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Putin stirs up UN General Assembly
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Who defines the Pacific voice
An opinion piece
Who’s Who in the Zoo
This paper reflects on fieldwork Teena Brown Pulu and Richard Pamatatau conducted in Tonga on the people’s election and the nobles’ election of November 27th 2014. Who’s who in the zoo?[i] Ethnographically speaking we mean what did voters say of the leadership and government needed, and the country’s priorities for moving forward? Furthermore, how was Tongan “life, liberty and security” made sense of? (United Nations, 1948). With Democratic Party…
Fieldwork journals on Tonga’s 2014 election
This essay presents selected passages from the fieldwork journals of Teena Brown Pulu and Richard Pamatatau on Tonga’s 2014 election. Staged on November 27th, here was the second general election under an amended constitution intended to bring about a more democratic system of parliament and government. Woven together are interrelated factors which field researchers like us – academics who craft their written studies on encounters, observations, …
Clash of civilisations
The House thanks God that the king is still in good health, and the Monarch is still in control of the affairs of the country. We thank god for the assistance to Tonga from donor countries (Lord Lasike cited in Matangi Tonga, 2011). At the first 2011 session of Tonga’s legislative assembly on June 9th the House was busy thanking god for king and aid donors, a variation to king and country, the usual saying. Tongan journalist Pesi Fonua poked fun …
Who Owns Tonga
“Who owns Tonga?” asked Sefita Hao’uli. “We do. The people,” I quickly pitched back. But do we really? Quietly I second guessed myself after blurting out an idealistic reply. It might have sufficed the correct response in a liberal democracy where by one general election registered voters elected all their members of parliament. But in the Kingdom of Tonga’s 2014 election year the dread squatting on my conscience murmured the monarchy and nobilit…
Off the Deep End
Tonga had gone off the deep end. It proposed to grow its ocean territory in length by 60 nautical miles southeast and southwest. Hardly anyone knew the particulars, apart from a select group of senior bureaucrats in the Government of Tonga persevering to make it happen. The Tongan public paid closer attention to who might come into government at the November 2014 election and whether any women would get voted into parliament. Local media had spoo…
Geopolitical storymaking about Tonga and Fiji
Just when Tongan Democratic Party leader ‘Akilisi Pohiva stumped the public by saying he admired Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama because “he has been able to make things happen and take development to the people,” the Government of Tonga’s Minister for Lands, Lord Ma’afu, came right out of the blue and trumped him (Tonga Daily News, 2014a, 2014b). Ma’afu topped Pohiva at causing public bamboozlement. By this, Pohiva was the progenitor of …
Free Roast Pig at Open Day
I kid you not. This is a time in Pacific regional history where as a middle-aged Tongan woman with European, Maori, and Samoan ancestries who was born and raised in New Zealand, I teach students taking my undergraduate papers how not to go about making stereotypical assumptions. The students in my classes are mostly Maori and Pakeha (white, European) New Zealanders. They learn to interrogate typecasts produced by state policy, media, and academia…
Disaster politics
Entering the new year of 2014 the Kingdom of Tonga had enough to worry about; a local economy choking to near death and a finance minister sacked and replaced in a political spectacle leaving the public baffled over what went wrong between him and the Prime Minister (Fayle, 2014; Lopeti, 2014c; Fonua, 2014b). People uttered they looked forward to the end of year election tentatively set for Thursday November 27th. The 2010 register of around fort…
Minerals and Cucumbers in the Sea
Constitution law researcher Guy Powles, a Pakeha New Zealander residing in Australia was not optimistic accurate predictions on “the [Tonga] election which is coming up now in November” could be made (Garrett, 2014). “A man would be a fool to try to guess just where the balance will finish up,” he uttered to Jemima Garrett interviewing him for Radio Australia on April 30th 2014 (Garrett, 2014). Picturing the general election seven months away on …
No prominent works on this page.
Ma'afu's word is in the hills - What is a Noble's role in a democratised Tonga
This paper explores the tensions played out between social groups in the Kingdom of Tonga and its overseas settlements, in relation to the democratisation of the homeland state. Ethnographic detail pays attention to how the nobility – Tonga’s landed gentry – are responding to criticism that traditional leadership needs to politically reform
Modern Colonialism
For this second article in a series of four stimulated by conversations about present day Tonga, Sefita Hao’uli, Kalafi Moala, and Melino Maka discuss whether there is a Tongan frame or explanation for development. And what about concepts and practices of self-determination? How can sovereignty and self-determination be realised as a national development plan when aid donors have such a tight grip over Tonga, they shape reality in the present and…
Rethinking development in Tonga
Acknowledging the work of the late Tongan professors, Futa Helu and Epeli Hau’ofa, this is the first in a series of four articles. Teena Brown Pulu revisits Helu’s criticism of development in Tonga by framing interview conversations with Sefita Hao’uli, Kalafi Moala and Melino Maka in a Hau’ofa-styled narrative that draws on satire and tongue-in-cheek prodding as a form of criticism. This is Tongan storytelling with a critical edge which will lea…
Report went to court
Chief Justice Michael Dishington Scott signed a court order in the Supreme Court of Tonga on December the 4th 2012, signifying structural reform in the South Pacific Kingdom. Whether the Kingdom of Tonga was ready or not, clued-up on what a judicial review was or not, the legal process for initiating one to get a judge to review parliamentary procedure was underway. Dishington Scott’s Supreme Court order issued by the Nuku’alofa Registry “ordered…
She’ll wake up one of these days and find she’s turned into a Tongan
In November of 2012, the Government of Tonga announced it had put $1 million Tongan pa’anga into setting up a fund for exporting taro, tapioca, watermelon, and yam targeted for sale on the New Zealand market. It took three months for this public notice to reach independent media, getting published by local news outlets in February the following year. Tongan farmers in villages and districts made no rush to grab the state’s money. It was in fact a…
Fish Tales
In the small island developing state of Tonga, an archipelago of 176 coral atolls scattered across 664,853 square kilometres of the South Pacific Ocean, power and resourcing differentials dictate which people are permitted to be commercial fishermen and what groups do the subsistence kind, customary fishing. A handful of Native Tongans engage in commercial exporting. The tuna industry is dominated by foreign vessels, by foreign countries, that ca…
Deep Sea Tension
The Kingdom of Tonga was quick off the mark sponsoring deep sea mining companies for exploration licenses to the International Seabed Authority. On the 11-15 March 2013 a regional workshop on deep sea minerals facilitated by the Secretariat for the Pacific Community was held in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. Fifteen Pacific Island states attended. It was focused on state law and regulations, and enforcing compliances for safe mining and liability for seabed …
Climate-Change Blues
The loss of small island states will affect us all. Climate change refugees will become a very serious issue for all countries. Lord Ma’af On the afternoon of December 15th 2009, Tonga’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Lord Ma’afu, made a passionate plea to the international press assembled at the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. He had a message he wanted to get out to the world. Politically, Ma’…
Forget China
In the South Pacific winter of 2013, Michael Brassington reported from Tonga that “China is now the South Pacific’s most valued VIP.” The Australian journalist was interviewing Pesi Fonua, longstanding Tongan publisher who commented: “They are definitely calling the shots. Whatever they want they can negotiate or take it.” Referring to China, he ranked this regional power as a twenty first century precursor for South Seas debt, diplomacy, and ind…
What Reform? Reform Stories in the Kingdom of Tonga
What is the likelihood that the Kingdom of Tonga will go to a general election in 2014 and the same pool of leaders, middle-aged and older men, will get voted back to parliament? For the small island developing state of Tonga that has a population of 104,509 thousand, the Legislative Assembly is elected every four years. Comprising of seventeen people’s representatives voted in by constituencies of registered voters on the general roll, and nine …
The job of thinking people
Howard Zinn wrote "it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners" (Zinn, 2003). Democracy by Zinn's view operates beyond state nationalism and a capitalist economy. Represented in people movements, it is the grassroots activism, protests, and boycotts of the people from below that gives democracy meaning. This third essay of four prompted by dialogues with Sefita Hao'uli, Kalafi Moala, and Melino Maka explores the pol…
Clash of civilisations
The House thanks God that the king is still in good health, and the Monarch is still in control of the affairs of the country. We thank god for the assistance to Tonga from donor countries (Lord Lasike cited in Matangi Tonga, 2011). At the first 2011 session of Tonga’s legislative assembly on June 9th the House was busy thanking god for king and aid donors, a variation to king and country, the usual saying. Tongan journalist Pesi Fonua poked fun …
Who Owns Tonga
“Who owns Tonga?” asked Sefita Hao’uli. “We do. The people,” I quickly pitched back. But do we really? Quietly I second guessed myself after blurting out an idealistic reply. It might have sufficed the correct response in a liberal democracy where by one general election registered voters elected all their members of parliament. But in the Kingdom of Tonga’s 2014 election year the dread squatting on my conscience murmured the monarchy and nobilit…
Off the Deep End
Tonga had gone off the deep end. It proposed to grow its ocean territory in length by 60 nautical miles southeast and southwest. Hardly anyone knew the particulars, apart from a select group of senior bureaucrats in the Government of Tonga persevering to make it happen. The Tongan public paid closer attention to who might come into government at the November 2014 election and whether any women would get voted into parliament. Local media had spoo…
Geopolitical storymaking about Tonga and Fiji
Just when Tongan Democratic Party leader ‘Akilisi Pohiva stumped the public by saying he admired Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama because “he has been able to make things happen and take development to the people,” the Government of Tonga’s Minister for Lands, Lord Ma’afu, came right out of the blue and trumped him (Tonga Daily News, 2014a, 2014b). Ma’afu topped Pohiva at causing public bamboozlement. By this, Pohiva was the progenitor of …
Free Roast Pig at Open Day
I kid you not. This is a time in Pacific regional history where as a middle-aged Tongan woman with European, Maori, and Samoan ancestries who was born and raised in New Zealand, I teach students taking my undergraduate papers how not to go about making stereotypical assumptions. The students in my classes are mostly Maori and Pakeha (white, European) New Zealanders. They learn to interrogate typecasts produced by state policy, media, and academia…
Disaster politics
Entering the new year of 2014 the Kingdom of Tonga had enough to worry about; a local economy choking to near death and a finance minister sacked and replaced in a political spectacle leaving the public baffled over what went wrong between him and the Prime Minister (Fayle, 2014; Lopeti, 2014c; Fonua, 2014b). People uttered they looked forward to the end of year election tentatively set for Thursday November 27th. The 2010 register of around fort…
Minerals and Cucumbers in the Sea
Constitution law researcher Guy Powles, a Pakeha New Zealander residing in Australia was not optimistic accurate predictions on “the [Tonga] election which is coming up now in November” could be made (Garrett, 2014). “A man would be a fool to try to guess just where the balance will finish up,” he uttered to Jemima Garrett interviewing him for Radio Australia on April 30th 2014 (Garrett, 2014). Picturing the general election seven months away on …
Big bananas in Kiribati
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu and Richard Pamatatau
Is Tonga ready for Paris
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Who's got water lapping at the door
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Tonga's metaphoric hangings
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Village day in diaspora
An opinion piece by Dr Brown Pulu
New Zealand's climate refugee debate grows louder
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Putin stirs up UN General Assembly
An opinion piece by Dr Teena Brown Pulu
Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (23 works) · Political science (20 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · History (12 works) · Geography (11 works) · Media studies (8 works) · Democracy (6 works)