Tongan women: Looking for female empowerment and models of feminism? Miss Heilala is the last place you should be searching.
Like most young Tongan women, I grew up being totally enamoured with the Miss Heilala Pageant back in the motherland. Tucked away in a childhood photo album is a photograph of my sister and myself during the 2005 Miss Heilala Pageant season in Tonga hosting an excruciatingly homemade version of the pageant with me wearing my mother’s lipstick and a random ta’ovala¹ that was left pressed underneath a mattress, pretending I was that year’s Miss Heilala. The novelty has worn off, especially in light of recent events. For those that are unfamiliar with this topic of discussion, here is a bit of context: The Miss Heilala pageant is an annual beauty pageant hosted in Tonga. It was first organised in 1980 by the Ministry of Tourism and the Tonga Tourist Association to celebrate the birthday of the late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. On the final evening of this year’s pageant, chaos ensued when the outgoing winner, Kalo Funganitao, had her microphone cut in t...