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@liddytutuvanu

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One of my favourite shots from the Rugby League World Cup 2022 celebrations in Samoa after Critta’s kick. Let’s run it back. Happy (safe) parade szn everyone!! 🙂‍↕️🇼🇸 #685totheworld
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I could write a whole soliloquy on how the last few months as a season, has been blessed and a testament to being highly favoured. But, that would be a disservice to the cost it took to get here. The ungodly hours at the 9-5. The multiple meltdowns. The financial discipline - to fly to multiple cities and countries and still pay the mortgages and rent on time. The juggling of many competing priorities. The meetings. Lord, the many different meetings. The daily routine that is banal and tediously boring. Both are truths. Contrasting. But true nonetheless. I suppose that’s what it means to live life to its fullest depth and breadth. Kinda chic for @diamondtaro to dream up movie screenings on the Funafuti runway at our PFF retreat last year. With @eliorahm at the helm, it was inevitable that it came true. “Pasifika is incomplete without West Papua” - Koteka Wenda They rolled their eyes at me for every scene they had to rehearse at least 10 times. But they shot their film in 45 mins. Such talent these Tuvaluan kids. It was only at this moment. At Opening Night. During this Tongan himi. That I realised I was actually running my first ever film festival. Some of the faces that made PFF Melbourne’s Opening night hilarious and run smoothly. Just call us Cinta and Fella. Miss Global was on time. The Sapolu’s were not. But boy, did I appreciate seeing their faces. Our short reprieve from feau’s. My third time this year in being home. But always good to see these faces. And a joy to serve my favourite humans. Picasso. Core memory. One source of my Tuvalu kagivale diary. What a team this was! 🤏🏾 Fuimaono Dominic Tufuga-Schwalger has served our family for more than a decade. Only right we as siblings all flew home to help while he said goodbye to his mum. Little did I know I would stick out like a sore thumb 🤣 I just know Eliorah was sick of us and our dumb sibling fights/antics. The epicentre of why I do what I do.
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So incredibly proud of my beautiful nieces, @lenatutuvanu & @liddytutuvanu , and everything you continue to achieve 👏❤️ Watching you both pour yourselves into Tale of the Diaspora and use storytelling to give voice to our Pacific people, especially our young Pasefika women - makes me so proud🥹. You have worked yourselves to the bone for this passion, and last night was another beautiful reminder that Pasefika women belong in every space we have the courage to step into 🙌 @liddytutuvanu , hearing you speak about the realities of being a migrant and part of the diaspora truly resonated with me. That feeling of sometimes being too brown for one space and too white for another is something so many of us understand. But wherever we find ourselves, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and there is purpose in who God created us to be❤️ And my @lenatutuvanu … watching you host that Q&A last night, I was sitting there so incredibly proud of you 🙏🥹 You are genuinely one of the strongest and most powerful women I know. I hope you always know how much I believe in you. I will forever be in your corner, cheering loudly for you in everything you do, not because you are my sister-niece, but because I know your heart, your strength and what you carry🥹❤️ Congratulations my girls. May God continue to bless the work of your hands, enlarge your territory and use your courage and your stories to make room for the Pasefika women coming behind you🌺 Keep taking up space, you belong there 🙌❤️ All our love our darling girls 🥹❤️ #Taleofthediaspora #pasefikafilmfest #tutuvanu #jeannemailosapolu #pasefikawomen
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Introducing @liddytutuvanu 💫 🎥 Made it. Screened it. Now let’s talk about it. Join the PFF2026 Filmmakers’ Q&A Panel and go beyond the screen. 📍 ACMI 🗓️ 20 September | 4:15 PM 🎟️ Tickets in bio. #PFF2026 #FilmmakersQA #PacificStories #FilmFestivalSeason
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✨ The lineup is cooking...✨ 🎞️: Tales of the Diaspora 📄: This short documentary is centered on Johnny, a Cook Islander/Samoan born and raised in the United Kingdom. Despite the distance from the Pacific Islands, she and her community actively create opportunities to learn and share cultural traditions. The short film aims to spark a conversation on how we can help bridge the gap between the diaspora and cultural knowledge holders. 🎬: @liddytutuvanu
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First half of the year part 1 🙂‍↕️
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✨Matariki celebrations at National Maritime Museum in London. ✨ On the 11th of July 2026, we performed Kiribati, Samoan and Cook Island (Mangaia) items to celebrate the Māori New Year. We are truly honoured to have shared with the community the rich Pacific tapestry of knowledge that surrounds these stars through dance alongside our Māori whānau (@ngatiranana). This was a momentous occasion having our elders’ stories not only be recognised but commemorated at such a beautiful event. We are also incredibly proud of our Beats of Polynesia members who were involved in the programme. From oral storytelling (@travis.chai & @johnnyaroha) to kite making (@tina ), to creating breathtaking banners (@momoe.ink, @lanuenaenajaq @ctemsquares & @stuffbyseener) to even co-curating (@liddytutuvanu), we are immensely proud of our members continuing to share our ancestors’ stories. We hope to continue to honour the people who safeguarded our culture before us and continue to authentically share it in these spaces. Copyright: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London @royalmuseumsgreenwich
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✨We’re honoured to be performing at this year’s Matariki celebrations at the National Maritime Museum, London. We’ll see you there on 11/07✨ ⭐🌺 Known across the Pacific by many names, this star cluster has guided our people for generations. Its rising signals a season of remembrance, renewal, and preparation. For this special occasion, Beats of Polynesia will present two original works, choreographed to songs created within our own community. For many Pasifika people, accessing traditional knowledge is not always easy. The impacts of colonisation and generations of cultural disruption meant that many practices, stories, and ways of knowing were discouraged or lost. Yet what remains has been carefully protected by our elders and communities. In our effort to preserve and strengthen this knowledge, we have turned to our elders, listening to their stories and weaving their wisdom into song and dance for future generations. One piece shares a story from Mangaia. It was created by two members of the group. One member wrote the lyrics (@tina). One member composed and performed the song (@kaivai). The second is a Samoan piece produced by Nanai Galumalemana Stephen Simanu Sapolu and written and performed by Leiataualesa Tagaloa Jerome Laveitiga Sapolu. This piece was generously gifted to us by the Sapolu family in Samoa especially for this event. To share these stories through song and dance, on one of the world’s most significant maritime stages, is a true honour. Through these works, we celebrate the resilience of Pacific cultures, honour our ancestors, and reaffirm the enduring connection between our people, the stars, and the art of navigation. ✨ The stars still guide us. The stories still live on. 🌺🌊⭐
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“E au le ina’ilau a tama’ita’i” This is a Samoan proverb that my aunty used in her speech that night. And how beautiful it has been over the last two years of filming and screenings to witness these two women embody every word of it. Forever humbled to have been a small part of their journey and to witness such a powerful and loving form of service. Not just to their family, village, and island, but to a diaspora and community outside of their own. I have witnessed this service of love and passion through Liddy’s time in London. Her drive to learn, understand, and showcase all that Pasifika people have built in the UK for generations deserves more flowers than I could ever gift. She never shows off all the incredible work she has done for us and the culture, but instead continually thinks of ways to make sure this diaspora and the work done is brought to light. To think I got to sit with @lenatutuvanu and share this taonga with both our families in Auckland was surreal; even bringing Tales to NZ was surreal. Big meitaki ngao to all our people for showing up n showing love, this night and throughout They are far too humble to talk about just how talented they both are and the difference they are making to our people, but from this project to the next, I will scream it from the rooftops ⭐️
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I am incredibly proud to finally share a project I have been a part of. ‘Pacific Now’ is a beautiful initiative Johnny has spearheaded. This snippet from “Tales of the Diaspora” gives you only a tiny insight on her innate drive to correct and accurately represent our people across Te Moananui-a-Kiwa. The altruistic passion she has and continuous advocacy to create opportunities for our people, is why we are in constant awe of her. Despite trials and tribulations to get this project up and running, she perseveres for a greater purpose than herself: her community. It is a great privilege to show my people the way I see them and in a space that historically was not for us. It is also a great privilege of mine to have my work shown next to people that I have looked up to since the start of my creative journey. So thank you to @johnnyaroha , Tangata Moana Board and the National Maritime Museum for giving us the space to do so. Check it out here: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/pasifika-now Photographers: @jumpshot_74 @princeofmangere @southsides @_moaho_
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I spent the entirety of 2025 taking this small and short documentary of ours across multiple cities in Australia, and it felt right that it all came to a crescendo in Auckland this month. Home of ours and Johnny’s families, and many friends. How does one begin to thank the many generous hands and open hearts that facilitated this journey? Fai mea mafai. Auā lea ua tu’u atoa i ai le malosi ma le loto atoa. These Samoan sentences describe what the word “might” means with our Pasifika people in the diaspora. Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and finally Auckland poured into our cups with as much care and reverence as we did into making Tales of the Diaspora. We were given spaces that never dawned on us to enter. I got to meet faces that received our message with equal parts curiosity, respect, gratitude and inviting enthusiasm. That is the might of our Pasifika people. And what astonishing beauty it is. For that, I am deeply humbled and astoundingly moved. This is our first project. A YouTube premiere might have sufficed. And perhaps we could’ve stopped when multiple film festivals kept rejecting us. But, our mother didn’t raise a quitter. I thank everyone who came to all our screenings immensely, for showing up for us. Especially when you didn’t know who we were or if our project was worth seeing. Thank you, thank you. Thank. You. Tales will now rest. But Liddy and I will keep working; there’s more to come. -Lena
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Super proud of the niece's @xxiivanu Liddy and Mili tutuvanu and their first production together "Tales of the Diaspora" tautai ae - fai, ma toe fai pea👌 Mālo!
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