Internationally acclaimed Tongan tenor Filipe Manu, who has returned to Aotearoa for a major New Zealand Opera production, has previously revealed another ambition close to his cultural roots — to see the creation of the world’s first opera performed entirely in Tongan.

Manu is back in New Zealand to play Nadir in NZ Opera’s new staging of Georges Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, which opens in Auckland on September 23 before moving to Christchurch in October.

His return has also taken him back to Dilworth School, where his journey into classical singing began.

Manu recently donated his performance at a Dilworth fundraising concert supporting the school’s International Music Fund, aimed at creating international opportunities for its young singers. He told PMN that giving back was a way of helping another generation receive opportunities similar to those that launched his own career.

Long before this latest return, however, Manu had spoken publicly about another aspiration for the future.

In an interview published in the Winter 2026 issue of AA Directions, Manu was asked about his dream for the world of opera.

“If I were able to see the creation and performance of the world’s first opera entirely in Tongan, that would be pretty special,” he said.

The ambition reflects Manu’s strong attachment to lea faka-Tonga. In the same interview, he recalled arriving at primary school in Auckland unable to speak or understand English because Tongan was the language spoken at home.

He said a teacher once suggested his mother stop speaking Tongan to him so he could learn English more quickly, but the idea was quickly abandoned. Manu later reflected that otherwise he could have lost an important connection with his language, culture, mother tongue and relationship with his mother.

His path towards international opera began at Dilworth, where he discovered singing and later became head chorister of the founding Fortissimo choir around 2010.

Manu has credited the school with providing the opportunities that allowed his love of singing to develop, before he went on to study music at the University of Waikato and later at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He subsequently became the first person of Tongan heritage accepted into the Royal Opera House’s prestigious Young Artist Programme at Covent Garden.

His international career has since taken him to leading opera houses including the Vienna State Opera and Paris Opera.

Now his career has brought him back to the country where it began.

NZ Opera’s The Pearl Fishers will feature Manu as Nadir alongside Madison Nonoa as Léïla, Samuel Dundas as Zurga and Anthony Robin Schneider as Nourabad. Auckland performances will be held on September 23, 25 and 27 at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre.

The production is particularly significant because it marks NZ Opera’s first presentation of The Pearl Fishers since 2002 and brings its principal internationally based New Zealand singers home for the new staging.

For Manu, the return connects several stages of his journey — from the Auckland school where he first discovered his operatic voice, to an international career, and an earlier dream that one day the language he grew up speaking might itself be heard throughout an entire opera.

Tongan rugby league great Jason Taumalolo stands out among the North Queensland Cowboys’ Paul Bowman Medal winners of the past decade as the club prepares to crown its 2026 Player of the Year.

The Cowboys highlighted the past decade of medal winners ahead of their annual awards night, with Taumalolo’s extraordinary record dominating the list.

The Tongan powerhouse won the Paul Bowman Medal five consecutive times from 2016 to 2020, an unprecedented run at the North Queensland club.

He returned to claim the award again in 2022, taking his career tally to a club-record six Paul Bowman Medals.

The medal is the Cowboys’ highest individual honour and is awarded annually to the club’s Player of the Year.

Taumalolo’s six victories put him comfortably ahead of some of the biggest names to have represented North Queensland.

His dominance is particularly striking when the past decade is viewed together: he claimed six of the awards during that period.

The achievement adds to what has already become one of the most distinguished careers by a Tongan player in NRL history.

Taumalolo has spent his entire NRL career with the Cowboys after making his first-grade debut as a teenager in 2010.

In 2026, he added another major milestone by becoming the Cowboys’ most-capped player and reaching 300 NRL appearances for the club.

The former Dally M Medal winner has also been one of the most influential figures in Tongan rugby league, representing Mate Maʻa Tonga during its rise as an international force.

The Cowboys are expected to announce the 2026 Paul Bowman Medal winner tomorrow night.

Taumalolo’s record of six victories, however, remains the benchmark for the club’s Player of the Year honour.

A former teacher at Kelston Boys’ High School, which has long served a large Tongan and wider Pacific student community in West Auckland, has been convicted of sexually abusing two boys more than three decades ago.

An Auckland District Court jury found Murray Sakey, now in his mid-70s, guilty of seven indecency charges following an eight-day trial.

He was acquitted of one charge of threatening to kill.

Sakey, a former music teacher, had worked at Kelston Boys’ and also held music practices involving children at his West Auckland home.

The two complainants separately came forward decades after the alleged abuse.

Their decision followed publicity surrounding Sakey’s earlier conviction for possessing hundreds of child exploitation images.

In 2024, Sakey was sentenced to five months’ home detention and 15 months’ intensive supervision after pleading guilty to three charges of possessing objectionable publications.

Police had found hundreds of objectionable images on his devices and a USB drive.

During the latest trial, Sakey acknowledged that he found children attractive and admitted sleeping in the same bed as the boys, but denied sexually abusing them.

One complainant described Sakey as having become almost a “father figure” to him before the abuse occurred.

The other had first reported allegations against Sakey to police in 2002, but the case was not progressed at the time.

The jury ultimately rejected Sakey’s denials and convicted him on seven charges.

Sakey was taken into custody following the verdict and has been remanded until sentencing.

Source: The New Zealand Herald.

By Talaia Mika, RNZ Pacific correspondent, and is republished with permission

Five strong teams are in Tonga to compete for a spot in the World Cup Qualifiers including Tonga, who finds confidence from their home soil as they prepare to host the tournament next week.

It’s a double celebration for Tonga next week, given it’s their first time playing on their home soil and being able to host the Qualifiers at the same time.

Despite this, Tonga Netball Association chief executive Salote Sisifa said Tonga is confident of securing one of two remaining spots at next year’s Netball World Cup in Sydney when the Pacific qualifier gets underway on home soil next week.

Sisifa, who is also president of Oceania Netball, said the experience has provided valuable lessons for the team heading into the qualifier.

“Tonga came out 9th place out of 12 top teams that were participating. And we take the learnings off that. Tonga was of course the only team from Pacific there.”

The tournament in Tonga will feature five Pacific teams competing for two World Cup places, with Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea and Tonga all taking part.

Tonga enters the tournament after competing at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow six weeks ago, where the side made its debut and finished ninth out of 12 teams.

Sisifa said Samoa and Fiji are likely to pose the biggest challenges based on world rankings, but she does not believe rankings tell the full story.

“If I have to be honest, in terms of ranking wise, the biggest challenge would be Samoa and then Fiji of course. And they are the next two right after Tonga in terms of ranking.”

“But having said that, I don’t feel at times that these world rankings really do justice in terms, and the score even, in terms of the performances of the teams. Because every team is an underdog.”

She said Tonga will treat every match as a major challenge and will not take any opponent lightly.

“So going into this competition, every team is a high team for Tonga, the way we look at it and the preparations full on from Game 1 to Game 4, not leaving anything behind.”

Tonga is currently ranked seventh in the world and enters the tournament as the highest-ranked team among the five Pacific nations.

Sisifa said the team is determined not only to qualify for Sydney but also to reinforce its position among the world’s top 10.

“We’re at number seven in the world. And, you know, we need to and we have to solidify our place as being in the top ten of world netball coming into this competition.”

She said Tonga has remained in the world’s top 10 for the past three years.

“It’s only right that, yes, backing our team, we have sat at top ten for the last three years and coming in as the highest ranking.”

Despite the confidence, preparing the squad presents its own challenges.

The players and management are spread across three countries and nine different states, with the team often having less than a week together in camp before a major competition.

Sisifa said that means the team relies heavily on the players’ discipline, honesty and commitment to maintaining their fitness when they are apart.

“We highly rely on the honesty of players and their self-discipline to maintain themselves.”

She also credits the coaching staff for keeping in regular contact with players and monitoring their fitness while they are based overseas.

“I have to give it to the players, their honesty, their discipline, looking after each other and themselves when they’re not together and coming together.”

For Sisifa, the make-up of the team also highlights a wider challenge facing netball in Tonga and across Oceania.

No members of the current Team Tonga squad live in Tonga, with the players coming from the Tongan diaspora in New Zealand and Australia.

Sisifa said Oceania Netball and Tonga need to work towards narrowing the gap between local players and the high-performance level required to compete internationally.

“What we’re trying at the moment, and it’s a challenge for Oceania and Tonga included, is trying to bridge the gap between local talent and high performance.”

She said the tournament will also give young people in Tonga the opportunity to see elite netball played at home.

Sisifa is encouraging supporters from Tonga and the wider Pacific diaspora to attend the tournament and get behind their teams.

When asked what the next step would be if Tonga failed to qualify, Sisifa dismissed the possibility saying: “that’s not even a question because we’re going to qualify.”