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Longi (Ronnie) Taulafo

@random_ronnie

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MADE IN SAMOA
Raised in a Village
•
Born to Create
Assembled to Explore
Discovering my Potential
•
Atua Wayfinding
Spiritually Driven
SAMOAN SOUL.🇼🇸

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TAUTUA • FAAMAONI • TAUSINIO ✨
Service • Faithfulness • Perseverance

As my beloved Avele College celebrates 102 years 🎉, and 30 years since young women first entered its gates, I find myself reflecting with immense gratitude 😭

In 1997, at 12 years old, my mum, brother and I were deported back to Samoa from Australia. The following year, in 1998, I walked through the gates of Avele. Looking back now, Avele gave me far more than an education—it gave me purpose, faith, resilience, identity, and a future 🌿.

From cutting grass with machetes until my hands bled, climbing coconut trees I didn’t know how to climb down from 🥥, singing My Heart Will Go On by @celinedion in the school choir 😂, to helping build a winning water turbine for our Climate Change Project ⚙️, Avele shaped me in ways I could never have imagined.

Those seeds would later take me to study Anthropology 📚, present LIVE Children’s Television in Aotearoa 📺 with @whatnownz and @thefeed.gram , appear in a Samoan 🇼🇸 NZ action-comedy film, @takehomepayfilm 🎬, voyage beyond the Pacific and advocate for climate justice alongside Pasifika Warriors and voices 🌏, share a stage with @coldplay 🎤, and even meet my hero, @billnye “The Science Guy” 🔬.

To our beloved Principal, Lau Afioga Lafaitele Aiga Poasa Esera—lovingly known to us all as “Mum” 🙏🏾 ❤️—who taught us not only the fear of the Lord, but also the love of Him; to our dedicated teachers, past and present; to my dear classmates of the Class of 2002; and to every student who has ever walked the sacred grounds of Sina le Avele 🏫:

My Heart Goes on for You 🤣
Thank You, Thank You, and I LOVE YOU!

Malo lava le Tautua.
Malo le Faamaoni.
Malo fo’i le Tausiniō.
Mo le Atua 🙏🏽

Avele was my safe space, my home away from home, and the place that taught us the meaning of those words🌼

Faamanuia tele le Atua i lou 102 tausaga, AVELE 🎂, ma le 30 tausaga talu ona faavaeina tamaitai i si o tatou Laumua pele 💐.

Thank you, my Avele. You have given me more than you’ll ever know.

E lē galo oe. 💛💚
Alofaaga tele,
Mo oe la’u Pele, AVELE
Class of 2002

#Avele102 #ClassOf2002 #TautuaFaamaoniTausinio

💚💛🌼💛💚 by @random_ronnie

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4 months ago

Bula! 🇫🇯

🌺 History and culture came alive last month as our traditional leaders, elders and their representatives from Hawaii, Aotearoa New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji met on the chiefly island of Bau to begin preliminary discussions ahead of the 13th Festival of the Pacific Arts and Culture.

🌴This is the first in a series of meetings around the Pacific, in the lead up to the @festpachawaii which will bring together customary leaders from across the region for the first-ever Pacific Traditional Elders Summit in June this year.

🌏 As our region continues to face many challenges, the summit will be an opportunity for our elders to voice the critical issues facing their communities and give their insights from a cultural and traditional perspective. @festpachawaii will be a celebration of Pacific cultures and histories, a chance to meet and seek solutions to our common challenges and a fitting occasion to welcome our elders and traditional leaders from across the Pacific.

🙏🏾See you there!

———————————————————————————
🎙️ Miss Pacific Islands 2024, Moemoana Schwenke & Actor/TV Host Asiata Ronnie Taulafo
🎶 Junior Soqeta & Pauliasi
🎥 Voyager Pacific, Arran Rogers

———————————————————————————

#hawaii #fiji #samoa #aotearoa #pacific #festpac #culture #voyager #climatechange #fossilfueltreaty taken in Bau Island by @random_ronnie

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3 years ago

Bula! 🇫🇯

It’s been an epic 18 months since the first nation called for a #FossilFuelTreaty, and as we begin our voyage in 2024, we’re gathering the movement here where it all began: in the Pacific to strategise, reflect, build community, celebrate our wins, and come back stronger than ever—because our story is just getting started. 😉

Join @briannafruean and @random_ronnie as they take us on a stroll down memory lane—from our first country endorsement in late 2022 to the incredible momentum that followed, resulting in a total of 12 country endorsements by the end of 2023 and with more on the way in the coming months. 🤯

It’s been an incredible journey, spanning various cultures and countries here in the moana and beyond, bringing the fight to #EndFossilFuels right to the forefront of climate action. Stay tuned for more updates from our Pacific Strategy Retreat over the coming days as we bring you more from this week’s gathering.

Toso! ✊

Follow along at FossilFuelTreaty.org! 💙 taken in Nadi, Fiji by @random_ronnie

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3 years ago

Dear Uncle Hec 🕊️😭🦖🦕

Sometimes the greatest heroes don’t always wear costumes. Sometimes they wear muddy boots 🥾, carry pigs on their shoulders 🐷, share a glass of Pinot 🍷, and quietly protect the land they LOVE.

I first met you in Jurassic Park 🦖, where as Palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant you taught us that courage is not the absence of fear, but the choice to walk forward anyway.

Years later, you became our Uncle Hec in @huntforthewilderpeople alongside Ricky Baker🌲,you brought your Kiwi charm to @thorragnarokofficial ⚡and filled every frame of @peakyblinders with your presence.

But for me, your greatest scene was never written.

It was 15 March 2019 🕊️—a day Aotearoa and Christchurch will never forget. Amid unimaginable tragedy, our paths crossed while filming our little Kiwi-Samoan action comedy, @takehomepayfilm 🎬🇳🇿🇼🇸.

Outside Auckland’s @skytower_nz 🌆, the cameras were ready and I was moments away from jumping. Then suddenly, there you were.
You and Oscar Kightly, sharing a quiet coffee ☕. You smiled. You stopped. You gave your time.

Soon enough, you both became our wonderfully quirky wedding planners on an elevator 😂💍, bringing humour and generosity to our humble Samoan film.

That is the Sam Neill I will always remember ❤️. Not just the movie star ⭐,but the man who made time for people.

The man who loved animals 🐷🐕🐦, vineyards 🍇, friendship, and the rhythm of rural life 🌿.

A man who understood that the land is never simply owned. It is CARED for. Protected. Passed on. 🌱 You lived KAITIAKITANGA 🌏—Guardianship of the Whenua.

Where others sought to extract gold from the earth, you found it in people, mountains ⛰️, rivers, vineyards 🍷, stories, and generations yet to come.

Thank you for the laughter. For the unforgettable characters 🎭. For dinosaurs 🦖, detectives 🔎, and the grumpy uncle who taught us that family can be found in the most unexpected places.

Our condolences to your dear whānau, your friends, and all who love you—may you find comfort knowing how many lives were touched by your generosity, humour, and remarkable heart.

Moe mai rā e te rangatira 🌺
Manuia lau malaga 🤍
Love you always, Uncle Hec

A Bad Egg🥚 by @random_ronnie

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3 months ago

🌺✨ 9 years ago I had the chance to write, direct, and produce one of my very first TV PARODIES.

Nine years before the live-action Moana would hit the big screen, we created our own Samoa-Kiwi kids TV version of “You’re Welcome” on @whatnownz

Looking back now, it’s a reminder of how stories have a way of finding us long before we realise it. 🎬🌊

Coming to Niu Sila, Aotearoa from Samoa 🇼🇸🇳🇿 opened up a world I never imagined. Not just a world of opportunity, but a world of GUNGE 🫟, FOAM 🫧, CREAM PIES 🥧💥, CREATIVE CHAOS 🤪, and IMAGINATION 🌈. Somehow, I felt right at home. ❤️

This little parody became one of my very first opportunities to create a playful Pacific parody inspired by Disney’s Moana—bringing together comedy, music, and a whole lot of heart. 🌺

Huge faamalo to my uso @morgnuts ,the editing magic of @michellebradford and the blessing of my What Now village. Looking back now, it’s amazing to see how far our stories have travelled.

A huge fa’afetai tele lava to Seiuli Dwayne @therock Johnson, @catherinelagaaia , and everyone involved in bringing MOANA to life once again. 🌺❤️ Thank you for continuing to carry our stories across oceans and onto the world’s biggest screens.

As Tagata ole Moana, we’ve always been more than Navigators. We crossed vast oceans guided by the stars, carrying with us our languages, our culture, our songs, our humour, and our stories.

Every generation has found new ways to keep those stories alive. Today, those voyages continue—not only by va’a-vaka-waka, but through ata-tifaga, film, television, music, and art.

May our stories continue to inspire future generations to know where we come from, honour those who came before us, and never be afraid to keep voyaging forward. 🌊✨

So, in honour of the new live-action Moana, here’s a little THROWBACK to when our budget was smaller 💸, our confidence was BIGGER 💪🏽, and “You’re Welcome” got the full Samoan-Kiwi kids TV treatment. 😉

Here’s to another generation discovering the magic of Moana. Catch it in cinemas this JULY. 🌊✨

YOU’RE WELCOME. 🤙🏽🌺

#Moana #Faafetai taken in Christchurch, New Zealand by @random_ronnie

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3 months ago

🌿 SONS OF SAVAI’I meet at SONS OF VAO 🌿

Sometimes the most meaningful journeys begin with a van full of dreamers, storytellers, and fearfully and wonderfully made creatives bound together by a love of live theatre. 🚐✨

Last week, my OneoneSix Theatre family made the two-hour voyage from Whangārei to Tāmaki Makaurau to witness Pasifika excellence take centre stage.

🎭 Sons of Vao by Vela Manusaute is more than a play — it’s a mirror, a memory, and a pathway toward healing.

Massive FAAMALO to the extraordinary cast:

🔥 Haanz Fa’avae-Jackson
🔥 Epine Bob Savea
🔥 Brett Taefu

And to my SALA’ILUA Uso,

🔥 Beulah “Thank You For Your Service” Koale

These brothers carried generations of story on their shoulders with honesty, humour, heartbreak and grace.

The play navigates two worlds many of us know intimately — island and city, tradition and modernity, boys becoming men, fathers and sons, survival and healing.

It reminded me of my dad, my parents, our grandparents, and all those who crossed oceans searching for something greater for the generations to come. 🌊❤️

What struck me most was how familiar it felt. Like looking into a Pasifika home — or in our case, a fale with “no windows and no doors”.

Everything visible. Seen. Exposed. Like a gaping wound. The love. The laughter. The hurt. The silence. The flaws. The strength.

Without giving too much away, this is a story that stays with you long after the curtain sheet falls. A powerful reminder that healing begins when we’re willing to see ourselves clearly and hopefully with grace.

Malo lava Vela Manusaute and the entire crew for telling our stories with such courage, humour, pain, beauty and truth. ❤️

🎭 Sons of Vao
📍 ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland
📅 On Now - Until 5 July

🎟️ GO GET YOUR TICKETS!

And take the whole Village with You.

Fakaue lahi to the Sons & Daughters of OneoneSix aka my 🚐 Van-Plan-Clan for the invite. The road trip, laughs, the talanoa and experience were all part of the magic. 🙌🏽

Fakamālō lahi ke he tau tagata fakafiafia oti. Ko e fakakiteaga ha mutolu ne mua ue atu. Kia monuina mo e tumau e manuia.🇳🇺✨

Fakaue lahi mahaki. Alofa atu. ❤️🌺
🇳🇺 🇼🇸 🇳🇿 🇹🇴 🇳🇺 by @random_ronnie

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3 months ago

From the sacred shores of Efate, Vanuatu, where our movement first took off, a new chapter is beginning! 🌊🇻🇺

Our Blue Pacific has never stopped fighting. We secured the 1.5°C goal in Paris. We championed the push for the Advisory Opinion at the International Court of Justice. And we raised the banner for a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

Last week, we launched the Tassiriki Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific, a unified vision developed by our Pacific Ministers, senior officials, and civil society. It’s a strengthening of our voice, a clear direction for the world, and a promise to our children that we are charting the course for a just and equitable future.

Now, our voyage continues! Our Pacific fleets are setting sail from Port Vila to Santa Marta, Colombia, for the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. ⛵️🇨🇴

We are not drowning—we are still fighting! ✊🌊

Join us. Follow the journey.

#FossilFuelTreaty #PortVilaCall #ClimateJustice #NotDrowningFighting #FossilFuelFreePacific taken in Port Vila, Vanuatu by @random_ronnie

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5 months ago

Halo olgeta from Port Vila, Vanuatu! 👋🇻🇺

We’re back to where the call for a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific first began to welcome another exciting chapter in history! 📖

Our Pacific ministers and senior officials are here, in our islands, charting our shared voyage towards a just transition for the whole world. ⛵️🌊

Soon, they’ll be sailing to Santa Marta, Colombia, for the First International Conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels at the end of the month! 🇨🇴

Revisit how far we’ve come, and find out more about this monumental meeting 👉 FossilFuelTreaty.org/port-vila-ii-opening. taken in Port Vila, Vanuatu by @random_ronnie

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6 months ago

🔴 LIVE here for the “arrival” of Cyclone Vaianu… which, as you can see, is delivering some truly historic… light rain 🌧️😅

Shop shelves were stripped, bread vanished 🥖, petrol prices shot up ⛽📈—and for what? A drizzle and a bit of wind. You’ve got to wonder if this storm doubled as a panic-buying campaign 🤔

And honestly… maybe 🌀Vaianu took one look at last night’s rugby 🏉 result and backed off. The @nzwarriors absolutely wiping out the @storm and suddenly even the 🌀Vaianu didn’t want to show up anymore 😭🌪️➡️💨

Cost of living is up 💸, finances are down 📉, and now even our cyclones are going missing.

Back to you from the scene of… mild inconvenience. taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @random_ronnie

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6 months ago

Did I ever tell you the fictional story of how I almost became the 4th Mio of Sol3 Mio… but nah for real, things got crazy real quick. 🤯

It all started in the heart of South Auckland 💖 - at a Mangere bus stop 🚏—yes, you heard me right. A humble bus stop, not some grandiose music hall or opera stage. I was just waiting for my 685 bus 🚎, minding my business, when I heard the unmistakable sound of... Boys II Men 🎶. From the first note of End of the Road, I was hooked. The harmonies, the deep soul—oh, it was a vibe. And who was serenading the whole bus stop with that angelic melody? None other than Pene and Amitai, the Pati Brothers! 👑🎵

Now, I’m not one to shy away from a good song, so I jumped in like a Yellow Bird out of a cage. 🦅🎤 I was all in. I didn’t care if I was off-key or if the homeless farting drunk next to us gave us a weird look. 😂 We were making magic ✨

But that was only the beginning. The real twist came when he arrived: Moses. 😎

Oh Moses, with his luscious hair that probably had its own weather forecast ☀️🌧️, his infectious laugh that could warm even the coldest hearts ❤️, and his Bachelor-beard that made him look like he had just stepped out of a movie poster for “Charming, but Mysterious.” 🎥 He was only 12 years old - and somehow had a FULL grown beard! 🧔

AND, of course, his sexy baritone vocals that made even the bus stop pigeons stop and listen 🕊️. My karaoke skills had nothing on that guy. 🎤

But Moses was... well, he was everything I wasn’t. 😅 We could all see the writing on the wall: Our trio, “The PATI-YAHH Samoan Crew,” was going to be BIG. 🌍✨

Kids’ entertainment? ✅ Future superstars of Mangere, South Auckland, and beyond? ✅ But nooo, Moses had other plans. And like that, he dropped the bombshell: “What if we do opera?” 🤔

“Opera?” I said, still unsure if I was in some weird dream or just had too much sun. 🌞 He continued - “What about calling ourselves... Sole MIO?” 🎭 What about A-MIO VALEA? 😂💀

Moses just looked at me with that dramatic, mysterious Moses gaze 👀 and was like, “Nah, we’re going with Sol3 Mio. It’s classier. It’s… opera. We need to elevate the sound.” 🎶

[…CONTINUED IN COMMENTS] by @random_ronnie

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7 months ago

Thirty-eight times round the golden sun,
your light still grows, it’s never done.
A wahine toa, fierce and kind,
sharp in wit, with a brilliant mind.
A memory that misses nothing at all,
a laugh that lifts us when we fall.
You walk with courage, grounded and true,
the world feels brighter just knowing you.
From Te Ora Hou Te Tai Tokerau near,
and all who hold you endlessly dear —
Happy Birthday, Amanda Panda 🐼🎉
You rock our world, year after year. by @random_ronnie

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8 months ago

Olá from Belém, Brazil 🇧🇷!

Day 1 at COP30 and we’ve landed at the Moana Blue Pavilion – our HQ for the week. And lo and behold who do we bump into?

The legendary Kiwi, former Queen Bee-Hivest, Aunty Jacinda Ardern. What an Adern of events. 😎✨

She complimented my Crocs 🌈 🥿💖 (fashion diplomacy, obviously) and spotted some big brown Toa Samoa-looking 🇼🇸 brothers, and said, “you all make me miss home.”

Boss energy? Off the charts 📊!! Running countries, standing for Climate Justice, making Crocs iconic… she’s doing more for the planet 🌍 and the Pacific 🌺than the 3 Stooges — Oldie, Baldy & Dopey 🤣💀back home are doing for Aotearoa — and she’s not even PM. Absolute legend. 👑🔥

COP30 journey continues… saving the planet one epic encounter at a time. 🌿🌊💪

#thisisourhome #sprep #samoa #aotearoa #cop30 #belém #brazil #amazon #climate #climateaction #climatejustice #jacindaarden #legend #moanabluepavilion by @random_ronnie

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a year ago