Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography

Selected biography 1

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/1 Sir Iakoba Italeli, GCMG, was appointed the Governor-General of Tuvalu on 16 April 2010. From 2006 to 2010 he was the Minister of Education, Sports and Health, in the government of the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Apisai Ielemia.

Italeli was elected to represent Nui in the Parliament of Tuvalu on a non-partisan basis; this lack of alignment is not unusual in the politics of Tuvalu; unusually for Tuvalu, Italeli represented a constituency where trilingualism is a feature, since many inhabitants of Nui originate from Kiribati, and thus speak Gilbertese, in addition to Tuvaluan and English, the fluency of which varies among local people.

Selected biography 2

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/2 Sir Tomu Sione GCMG OBE, (17 November 1941 – April 2016). He was elected to represent Niutao in the House of Representatives of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in the general election of 1974. Following the separation of Tuvalu from Kiribati he served in the House of Assembly of the Colony of Tuvalu. Following independence, Tomu Sione was elected to represent the constituency of Niutao in the Parliament of Tuvalu in the elections held on 27 August 1977.

Tomu Sione served as Governor-General of Tuvalu from 1993 to 1994. Somewhat unusually for a former Governor-General, after standing down from this office, Sione later stood again for parliament. He was elected by the constituency of Niutao and served as the Speaker of the Parliament from 1998 to 2002. He was created GCMG in 2001. Sione lost his seat in the 2002 general election, however he was re-elected in the Tuvaluan general election, 2006 and served until the Tuvaluan general election, 2010.

Selected biography 3

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/3 Okilani Tinilau was born on 2 January 1989 on Nukulaelae. He was a sprinter and footballer. He represented Tuvalu at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, during the country's first ever participation in the Olympic Games. He competed in the 100 metre sprint at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, the 2011 World Championships and the 2013 World Championships. Tinilau was part of the Tuvalu national football team as a midfielder and participated in the 2011 Pacific Games. He also played for FC Manu Laeva football club in Tuvalu. At the 2012 NBT Cup he was the top scorer with 5 goals.

Selected biography 4

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/4 Lady Naama Maheu Latasi was influential in setting up the headquarters for the Girl Guides Association of Tuvalu in Funafuti following the creation of Tuvalu at the termination of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. She was appointed the first Tuvalu Girl Guides Commissioner. She stood for election in the constituency of Nanumea in 1989 and was elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu. Lady Latasi served as Minister of Health, Education and Community Services in the first Government of Prime Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu. She served in Parliament from 1989 to 1997. She was married to Sir Kamuta Latasi, a former Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Lady Latasi died in 2012.

Selected biography 5

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/5 Asenate Manoa (Nancy Manoa) was a Tuvaluan athlete who represented Tuvalu at the 2008 Summer Olympics, at the 2009 World Championships & 2011 World Championships and at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Her event was the 100 metres sprint. Manoa then became a powerlifter and won a bronze medal at the Pacific Games 2015 in the 72 kg category. Manoa was born 23 May 1992 on Kioa island in Fiji; Kioa was purchased by settlers from Tuvalu, who migrated from Tuvalu between 1947 and 1983.

Selected biography 6

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/6

Pelenike Isaia was a Tuvaluan politician. She worked initially for the Tuvalu Cooperative Society, as its branch manager on Nui atoll. Her career in national politics began when she won the August 2011 by-election for the constituency of Nui, and thus entered Parliament. The by-election had been caused by the death of her husband, the incumbent MP and Minister for Works Isaia Italeli. She was only the second woman ever to have sat in Tuvalu's Parliament, following Naama Maheu Latasi, who was an MP for Nanumea from 1989 to 1997. Isaia was not returned to Parliament at the Tuvaluan general election, 2015.

Selected biography 7

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/7 Maatia Toafa OBE (born 1 May 1954) is a Tuvaluan politician, representing Nanumea who served two non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister of Tuvalu. He first served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2006 until the 2006 general election. He was re-elected to parliament in the 2010 general election and regained the premiership in September, however he lost the support of the parliament following a motion of no confidence in December of the same year. In 2013 Toafa became the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in the government of Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga. He was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister following the Tuvaluan general election, 2015. Prior to entering domestic Tuvaluan politics, Toafa worked for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji.

Selected biography 8

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/8 Puakena Boreham is a medical practitioner who became a Tuvaluan politician when she was elected to represent Nui in the Tuvaluan general election, 2015. Dr Boreham is the third woman to be elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu. She was appointed as the Minister of Works and Natural Resources in August 2016.

Dr Boreham studied at the Fiji School of Medicine and graduated in 1998. She has worked for the Tuvaluan Ministry of Health at the Princess Margaret Hospital as an anaesthetist and as the Medical Superintendent.

Selected biography 9

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/9 Elekana was the first person to introduce Christianity to the Tuvaluan islanders. He became caught in a storm near his home on Manihiki in the Cook Islands and drifted for 8 weeks in a canoe before landing at Nukulaelae on 10 May 1861. Elekana began preaching the Christian faith during the 4 months he spent on the atoll. He then trained at Malua Theological College in Samoa, a London Missionary Society (LMS), before beginning his work in establishing the Church of Tuvalu in 1865.

Selected biography 10

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/10 Henry Faati Naisali (12 August 1928 – 29 October 2004) AO, CMG and an MBE. He participated in the negotiations in London which resulted in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony being separated into the British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu. He was appointed Financial Secretary of the British Colony of Tuvalu in 1976. He was elected to represent Nukulaelae in the House of Assembly of the British Colony of Tuvalu in the Tuvaluan general election, 1977. After Tuvalu became an independent country, Naisali was elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu in the 1981 general election. He was re-elected in the 1985 general election and was appointed finance minister and deputy prime minister in the government of prime minister Tomasi Puapua. In 1987, he was instrumental in the formation of the Tuvalu Trust Fund. Naisali was the Director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPBEC) from January 1986 to September 1988; he continued as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum until January 1992.

Selected biography 11

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/11 Dr. Nese Ituaso-Conway (MBBS (Fiji School of Medicine); MPH (University of Hawaii)) was the CEO (Permanent Secretary) of the Ministry of Public Works, Infrastructure, Environment, Labor, Meteorology and Disaster in 2020 and previously was the CEO (Permanent Secretary) of the Office of the Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Earlier in her career she was the Director of Public Health at Princess Margaret Hospital (Funafuti), which operates satellite health clinics in each of the 9 Islands of Tuvalu. She was also appointed as a member of international committees that co-ordinate health responses in Pacific island nations, including the Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network (PPHSN), which operates under the joint auspices of the Secretariat of Pacific Communities (SPC) and the WHO.

Selected biography 12

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/12 Dr Miliama Simeona and Dr Nese Ituaso-Conway were the first Tuvaluan female doctors who after graduating from the Fiji School of Medicine with a MBBS Bachelor Medicine and Surgery degree and a Diploma Primary Health Care and Preventive Medicine, both spent 12 months as an intern at the main hospital in Suva before returning to Tuvalu in 1999. From April 1999 to March 2001, Dr Miliama Simeona was a Medical Officer with the Ministry of Health Tuvalu. In 2001 and 2002 she attended the Fiji School Medicine and graduated with a post graduate diploma in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She was employed as the Obstetrician Gynaecologist at Princess Margaret Hospital (Funafuti), from January 2002 to April 2011. She was then appointed as the Executive Director of the Tuvalu Family Health Association, which works to improve family health in Tuvalu through the provision of information and services. It is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). She passed away on 27 September 2020.

Selected biography 13

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/13 Kausea Natano (born 1957) is the 13th Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Following the 2019 Tuvaluan general election, on 19 September 2019, the members of parliament elected Natano as prime minister. He is also serving as an MP for Funafuti, having also served as the country's deputy prime minister and minister for communications in former prime minister Willy Telavi's Cabinet (2010–2013). He was first elected to the Parliament in 2002. Before entering politics, Natano was the director of customs, and also served as assistant secretary in the ministry of finance and economic planning. (More...)

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Articles

Selected biography 1

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/1 Sir Iakoba Italeli, GCMG, was appointed the Governor-General of Tuvalu on 16 April 2010. From 2006 to 2010 he was the Minister of Education, Sports and Health, in the government of the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Apisai Ielemia.

Italeli was elected to represent Nui in the Parliament of Tuvalu on a non-partisan basis; this lack of alignment is not unusual in the politics of Tuvalu; unusually for Tuvalu, Italeli represented a constituency where trilingualism is a feature, since many inhabitants of Nui originate from Kiribati, and thus speak Gilbertese, in addition to Tuvaluan and English, the fluency of which varies among local people.

Selected biography 2

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/2 Sir Tomu Sione GCMG OBE, (17 November 1941 – April 2016). He was elected to represent Niutao in the House of Representatives of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in the general election of 1974. Following the separation of Tuvalu from Kiribati he served in the House of Assembly of the Colony of Tuvalu. Following independence, Tomu Sione was elected to represent the constituency of Niutao in the Parliament of Tuvalu in the elections held on 27 August 1977.

Tomu Sione served as Governor-General of Tuvalu from 1993 to 1994. Somewhat unusually for a former Governor-General, after standing down from this office, Sione later stood again for parliament. He was elected by the constituency of Niutao and served as the Speaker of the Parliament from 1998 to 2002. He was created GCMG in 2001. Sione lost his seat in the 2002 general election, however he was re-elected in the Tuvaluan general election, 2006 and served until the Tuvaluan general election, 2010.

Selected biography 3

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/3 Okilani Tinilau was born on 2 January 1989 on Nukulaelae. He was a sprinter and footballer. He represented Tuvalu at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, during the country's first ever participation in the Olympic Games. He competed in the 100 metre sprint at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, the 2011 World Championships and the 2013 World Championships. Tinilau was part of the Tuvalu national football team as a midfielder and participated in the 2011 Pacific Games. He also played for FC Manu Laeva football club in Tuvalu. At the 2012 NBT Cup he was the top scorer with 5 goals.

Selected biography 4

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/4 Lady Naama Maheu Latasi was influential in setting up the headquarters for the Girl Guides Association of Tuvalu in Funafuti following the creation of Tuvalu at the termination of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. She was appointed the first Tuvalu Girl Guides Commissioner. She stood for election in the constituency of Nanumea in 1989 and was elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu. Lady Latasi served as Minister of Health, Education and Community Services in the first Government of Prime Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu. She served in Parliament from 1989 to 1997. She was married to Sir Kamuta Latasi, a former Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Lady Latasi died in 2012.

Selected biography 5

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/5 Asenate Manoa (Nancy Manoa) was a Tuvaluan athlete who represented Tuvalu at the 2008 Summer Olympics, at the 2009 World Championships & 2011 World Championships and at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Her event was the 100 metres sprint. Manoa then became a powerlifter and won a bronze medal at the Pacific Games 2015 in the 72 kg category. Manoa was born 23 May 1992 on Kioa island in Fiji; Kioa was purchased by settlers from Tuvalu, who migrated from Tuvalu between 1947 and 1983.

Selected biography 6

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/6

Pelenike Isaia was a Tuvaluan politician. She worked initially for the Tuvalu Cooperative Society, as its branch manager on Nui atoll. Her career in national politics began when she won the August 2011 by-election for the constituency of Nui, and thus entered Parliament. The by-election had been caused by the death of her husband, the incumbent MP and Minister for Works Isaia Italeli. She was only the second woman ever to have sat in Tuvalu's Parliament, following Naama Maheu Latasi, who was an MP for Nanumea from 1989 to 1997. Isaia was not returned to Parliament at the Tuvaluan general election, 2015.

Selected biography 7

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/7 Maatia Toafa OBE (born 1 May 1954) is a Tuvaluan politician, representing Nanumea who served two non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister of Tuvalu. He first served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2006 until the 2006 general election. He was re-elected to parliament in the 2010 general election and regained the premiership in September, however he lost the support of the parliament following a motion of no confidence in December of the same year. In 2013 Toafa became the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in the government of Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga. He was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister following the Tuvaluan general election, 2015. Prior to entering domestic Tuvaluan politics, Toafa worked for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji.

Selected biography 8

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/8 Puakena Boreham is a medical practitioner who became a Tuvaluan politician when she was elected to represent Nui in the Tuvaluan general election, 2015. Dr Boreham is the third woman to be elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu. She was appointed as the Minister of Works and Natural Resources in August 2016.

Dr Boreham studied at the Fiji School of Medicine and graduated in 1998. She has worked for the Tuvaluan Ministry of Health at the Princess Margaret Hospital as an anaesthetist and as the Medical Superintendent.

Selected biography 9

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/9 Elekana was the first person to introduce Christianity to the Tuvaluan islanders. He became caught in a storm near his home on Manihiki in the Cook Islands and drifted for 8 weeks in a canoe before landing at Nukulaelae on 10 May 1861. Elekana began preaching the Christian faith during the 4 months he spent on the atoll. He then trained at Malua Theological College in Samoa, a London Missionary Society (LMS), before beginning his work in establishing the Church of Tuvalu in 1865.

Selected biography 10

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/10 Henry Faati Naisali (12 August 1928 – 29 October 2004) AO, CMG and an MBE. He participated in the negotiations in London which resulted in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony being separated into the British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu. He was appointed Financial Secretary of the British Colony of Tuvalu in 1976. He was elected to represent Nukulaelae in the House of Assembly of the British Colony of Tuvalu in the Tuvaluan general election, 1977. After Tuvalu became an independent country, Naisali was elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu in the 1981 general election. He was re-elected in the 1985 general election and was appointed finance minister and deputy prime minister in the government of prime minister Tomasi Puapua. In 1987, he was instrumental in the formation of the Tuvalu Trust Fund. Naisali was the Director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPBEC) from January 1986 to September 1988; he continued as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum until January 1992.

Selected biography 11

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/11 Dr. Nese Ituaso-Conway (MBBS (Fiji School of Medicine); MPH (University of Hawaii)) was the CEO (Permanent Secretary) of the Ministry of Public Works, Infrastructure, Environment, Labor, Meteorology and Disaster in 2020 and previously was the CEO (Permanent Secretary) of the Office of the Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Earlier in her career she was the Director of Public Health at Princess Margaret Hospital (Funafuti), which operates satellite health clinics in each of the 9 Islands of Tuvalu. She was also appointed as a member of international committees that co-ordinate health responses in Pacific island nations, including the Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network (PPHSN), which operates under the joint auspices of the Secretariat of Pacific Communities (SPC) and the WHO.

Selected biography 12

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/12 Dr Miliama Simeona and Dr Nese Ituaso-Conway were the first Tuvaluan female doctors who after graduating from the Fiji School of Medicine with a MBBS Bachelor Medicine and Surgery degree and a Diploma Primary Health Care and Preventive Medicine, both spent 12 months as an intern at the main hospital in Suva before returning to Tuvalu in 1999. From April 1999 to March 2001, Dr Miliama Simeona was a Medical Officer with the Ministry of Health Tuvalu. In 2001 and 2002 she attended the Fiji School Medicine and graduated with a post graduate diploma in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She was employed as the Obstetrician Gynaecologist at Princess Margaret Hospital (Funafuti), from January 2002 to April 2011. She was then appointed as the Executive Director of the Tuvalu Family Health Association, which works to improve family health in Tuvalu through the provision of information and services. It is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). She passed away on 27 September 2020.

Selected biography 13

Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/13 Kausea Natano (born 1957) is the 13th Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Following the 2019 Tuvaluan general election, on 19 September 2019, the members of parliament elected Natano as prime minister. He is also serving as an MP for Funafuti, having also served as the country's deputy prime minister and minister for communications in former prime minister Willy Telavi's Cabinet (2010–2013). He was first elected to the Parliament in 2002. Before entering politics, Natano was the director of customs, and also served as assistant secretary in the ministry of finance and economic planning. (More...)