Filia "Phil" Uipi is a Tongan-American lawyer, real estate broker, and politician in Millcreek, Utah. [1] He was the first Pacific Islander to be elected to the Utah State Legislature and remains the only Tongan to have been elected. [2] As of 2010, he remained the only Tongan elected to statewide office in the country. [3]
The youngest of eight children, [4] Uipi was born in 1949 in Fotuha'a, [5] Tonga, and grew up in Fakakakai, on the island of Ha'apai.
Uipi attended Liahona High School, where he was elected student body president and was also valedictorian of his graduating class. These achievements earned him a scholarship to Brigham Young University–Hawaii. For his final year of college he transferred to Brigham Young University's main campus in Provo, Utah. He graduated with a degree in zoology. Uipi matriculated at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law in 1982 and graduated with a J.D. degree in 1986. [1] [4]
Prior to attending law school, Uipi started his career selling real estate. In part, he held this job while his wife went to college to get a degree in accounting. Four years after she graduated he then went to law school. When he was admitted to the Utah Bar in 1986 he became the first Tongan attorney in the state. [5] [4] Uipi continued his real estate work with a focus on investment, purchasing and managing a number of properties. Since a good deal of the legal work he did was pro bono, Uipi reported that his real estate career funded his legal career. [4]
He served as a Republican in the state legislature from 1991 to 1994, during which he was chair of the Judiciary Committee. [6] [7]
In 1992, Uipi returned to Tonga to attend the National Conference on the Tongan Constitution and Democracy, chaired by pro-democracy movement leader Father Selwyn 'Akau'ola. Police met him at the airport, however, and placed Uipi and his wife back on the plane on which they had arrived and returned them to the US. [7] [8]
In 2014 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights appointed Uipi to the Utah State Advisory Committee. [9]
Tonga, officially named the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian country and archipelago comprising 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The archipelago’s total surface area is about 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. As of 2016, Tonga had a population of 100,651 inhabitants, of whom 70% reside on the main island, Tongatapu.
The history of Tonga is recorded since the century after 900 BC, when seafarers associated with the Lapita diaspora first settled the islands which now make up the Kingdom of Tonga. Along with Fiji and Samoa, the area served as a gateway into the rest of the Pacific region known as Polynesia. Ancient Tongan mythologies recorded by early European explorers report the islands of 'Ata and Tongatapu as the first islands having been hauled to the surface from the deep ocean by Maui.
Feleti Vakaʻuta Sevele, Lord Sevele of Vailahi was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tonga from 30 March 2006 to 22 December 2010.
John Holbrook Groberg has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1976. He is the author of The Eye of the Storm, and was the protagonist in the movie made from the book titled The Other Side of Heaven.
The 2006 Nukuʻalofa riots, also known as the Tongan riots, started on 16 November, in the Tongan capital of Nukuʻalofa. The Legislative Assembly of Tonga was due to adjourn for the year and despite promises of action, had done little to advance democracy in the government. A mixed crowd of democracy advocates took to the streets in protest. The riots saw a number of cases of robbery, looting, vehicle theft, arson and various property damage.
Rugby union is the national sport in Tonga. Sumo has a following, while football, judo, surfing, volleyball, and cricket have gained popularity in recent years. Rugby league and Australian football are also played.
General elections were held in Tonga on 23 and 24 April 2008 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly. The nobles were elected on 23 April, and the nine people's representatives on 24 April. A total of 32,000 people turned out to vote, giving a turnout of 48%.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in Tonga since 1891. The Tongan Mission was organized in 1916. However, due to anti-Mormon rumors and government policies, the LDS Church did not grow steadily in Tonga until 1924. Between 1946 and 1956, church leaders published Tongan translations of the scriptures and built a church-sponsored school known as the Liahona School. In 1968, Tonga's first LDS stake was organized and the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple was dedicated in 1983.
Samiuela ʻAkilisi Pōhiva was a Tongan pro-democracy activist and politician. Pohiva, the leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands (DPFI), served as the Prime Minister of Tonga from 2014 to his death in 2019. He was only the fourth commoner to serve as Prime Minister, and the first commoner to be elected to that position by Parliament rather than appointed by the King.
Reverend Dr. Sione Lātūkefu was a Tongan historian.
The Times of Tonga also known as Taimi o Tonga is published by the Taimi Media Network Ltd from Nuku'alofa, Tonga. The Times is the online version of Taimi 'o Tonga, which started publication in April 1989. Taimi is published twice a week, while Times is updated daily and is edited by longtime free-lance writer Sione A. Mokofisi. The newspaper's owner and publisher is Kalafi Moala, a Tongan-American citizen who in the early 1990s, with the help of fellow editor Faka'osi Maama, established one of the most popular and controversial Polynesian media prints in Tonga and New Zealand. Times editor Sione A. Mokofisi served as U.S. correspondent on the Tongan Chronicle when privatized by the Tongan government and sold to Mr. Moala's Taimi Media Network, Ltd.
ʻUliti Uata is a Tongan politician. He is a member of the Human Rights and Democracy Movement and the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands.
ʻEtuate Lavulavu is a Tongan politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga for Vavaʻu. He was stripped of his seat in 2016 after being convicted of bribery, precipitating the 2016 Vavaʻu 16 by-election.
Sēmisi Kioa Lafu Sika is a Tongan politician, businessman, and Member of the Tongan Parliament since 2010. He served as acting prime minister in September 2019, following the death of ʻAkilisi Pōhiva. He is currently leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands.
Siale ʻAtaongo Kaho, Lord Tuʻivakanō is a Tongan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Tonga from 2010 to 2014.
Dr. ʻAna Maui Taufeʻulungaki is a Tongan academic and politician.
Tongan Americans are Americans who can trace their ancestry to Tonga, officially known as the Kingdom of Tonga. There are approximately 57,000 Tongans and Tongan Americans living in the United States, as of 2012. Tongans are considered to be Pacific Islanders in the United States Census, and are the fourth largest Pacific Islander American group in terms of population, after Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, and Guamanian/Chamorro Americans.
Brigham Roland Smoot was a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an executive of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. He was one of the two first Mormon missionaries to preach in Tonga and served as president of the LDS Church's Tongan mission from July 1891 to October 1892. Smoot was the son of Abraham O. Smoot and the brother of Reed Smoot.
Relations between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the natives of the Pacific Island groups of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and surrounding island groups are quite complex.
Vaimoana (Moana) Litia Makakaufaki Niumeitolu is an actor, poet and artist. She was born in Tonga and lives in the United States of America.
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