Honours
- National honours
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Order of Queen Sālote Tupou III,Grand Cross (31 July 2008). [4]
Tevita Hala Palefau | |
|---|---|
| Minister for Education, Women's Affairs and Culture | |
| In office 25 January 2005 –2010 | |
| Preceded by | Paul Bloomfield |
| Succeeded by | ʻAna Taufeʻulungaki |
Tevita Hala Palefau (born ~1958) [1] is a former Tongan politician and Cabinet Minister.
Palefu began his career as a teacher at Mailefihi Siu'ilikutapu College in Vava'u in 1979. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji in 1985,and completed a Masters of Science at the University of Technology in Perth,Australia in 1993. [1] He later completed a PhD at the University of Toronto in Canada. [2] From 1996 to 1997 he was principal of Taufa'ahau Pilolevu College in Ha'apai,and he was principal of Tupou College from 1997 to 2000. [2] In 1998 he was ordained a Methodist Minister.
On January 25 2005 he was appointed Minister for Education,Women's Affairs and Culture. [1] [2]
He contested the seat of Vava'u 16 in the 2010 election but was unsuccessful. He subsequently worked as Vice President of Education at the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga. [3]
Order of Queen Sālote Tupou III,Grand Cross (31 July 2008). [4] 
Tonga,officially the Kingdom of Tonga,is an island country in Polynesia,part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands –of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about 750 km2 (290 sq mi),scattered over 700,000 km2 (270,000 sq mi) in the southern Pacific Ocean. As of 2021,according to Johnson's Tribune,Tonga has a population of 104,494,70% of whom reside on the main island,Tongatapu. The country stretches approximately 800 km (500 mi) north-south. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest,Samoa to the northeast,New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west,Niue to the east and Kermadec to the southwest. Tonga is about 1,800 km (1,100 mi) from New Zealand's North Island.
The history of Tonga is recorded since the ninth century 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.
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