This Island Princess Mahalia slays on X Factor Australia

Around 100 Māori and New Zealand-based Pasifika artists will represent Aotearoa alongside 26 other Pacific nations at the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts in Guam next May and June.

Considered the premier arts and culture event for the Pacific region, this is a government-to-government invitation, with the Māori Committee of the Arts Council of Creative New Zealand responsible for Aotearoa’s representation.

Invitations to the festival were extended to indigenous peoples of the Pacific, and Māori extended their invitation to New Zealand-based contemporary Pasifika artists to present a distinct Aotearoa voice.

“Once again we’re extremely pleased with the quality of artists who will be representing Aotearoa next year,” said Darrin Haimona, Head of the Aotearoa delegation for the 2016 festival and Chair of the Māori Committee.

“Together with our Pasifika brothers and sisters we will showcase the best of Māori and Pacific art from our country.”

Artists were invited to submit applications to be part of the Aotearoa delegation.…more

For seven months last year, Australian filmmaker Bentley Dean and his family lived with one of the South Pacific's last traditional tribes.

With regular fly-in visits from fellow director Martin Butler, they shot a feature film that dramatised the lives of the Yakel tribe in the mountainous areas of a Vanuatu island.

"They still live very traditionally – hunting with bows and arrows and wearing penis sheaths for the men and grass skirts for the women," says Dean.

"They've made a very deliberate decision to conserve their custom as they call it – their culture – because it's only a half-hour drive down the mountain to the main town."

The roughly 200 members of the tribe live by the same beliefs as they have had for centuries, with the same ancient ceremonies.

While they have one modern luxury – mobile phones – without electricity they have to travel to town to charge them.

Now, the film that Dean and Butler shot, called Tanna after the island, has been selected to have a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September.…more

When one talks of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s name is bound to pop up during the conversation. It would be safe to say that he’s the Hulk Hogan of our generation.

Johnson’s enormous popularity extends far beyond the wrestling world, with the California native one of Hollywood’s most successful superstars, as well as a global figure of affection. All that popularity hasn’t diminished his humbleness, with the star being one of the nicest celebrities around; always happy to oblige his fans with selfies or autographs. One thing that has always intrigued Johnson’s fans is his ethnicity, with the wrestler possessing a mixed heritage. And this article decode the question, which is: What is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s true ethnicity?

Johnson was born into a family of wrestlers, with his grandfather, “High Chief” Peter Maivia a well known wrestler, as well as his dad, Rocky Johnson, who created history by becoming the first black to win the WWF Tag Team Championship, along with partner Tony Atlas.…more

Jerome Kaino talks us through the All Blacks official welcome to Rugby World Cup 2015 at the Tower of London.

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The champion gold winning Opeloge family who took out the weightlifting medals for Samoa at the South Pacific Games and now their family tradition has been extended, with the youngest Opeloge weightlifting star - bringing home the bronze for Samoa at the Youth Commonwealth Games this week!

16 year-old weightlifter Don Opeloge has won bronze for Samoa during the afternoon session of the 77kg Men's Weightlifting competition at Tuanaimato, Samoa.

Don lifted 96kg in the Snatch and 122kg in the Clean and Jerk for a total of 218kg.

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Check out the highlights form the Commonwealth Youth Games 2015!

When University of Washington Defensive Tackle Danny Shelton arrived for the NFL Draft in Chicago wearing traditional Samoan dress and almost choked the life out of Commissioner Goodell in an on-stage hug, it symbolized the amazing dominance that one tiny island and its’ Polynesian neighbors have in NFL football. Five Polynesian players were selected in the first 66 picks of the 2015 NFL Draft, the most ever for the first three rounds. Over 70 players in the NFL are of Polynesian descent. There are 30 players from American Samoa in the NFL and more than 200 play Division I NCAA Football. A Samoan male is 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than an American non-Samoan.

Super Bowl Champions Jesse Sapolu and Ma’a Tanuvassa along with Kevin Kaplan and his company Coaching Charities decided to pay recognition to the contributions by establishing a Polynesian Football Hall of Fame in 2013. It had its’ first group of inductees the next year including players like Junior Seau, Kevin Mawae and Jack Thompson (“The Throwing Samoan”).…more

The Man Behind The Rock’s Stunts For The Past 13 Years Is His Cousin.

In Hollywood, you’re only as good as the guy doing your stunts.

And in the case of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, he might have the best damn stuntman in the entire business.

The same man has held DJ down and made him look good on camera since The Rock’s acting debut in “The Scorpion King” back in 2002.

But just like wrestling, it’s a family business and The Rock’s stuntman is none other than his cousin Tanoai Reed.

The Rock is the biggest action movie star in Hollywood right now.

So it’s only right he has the best stuntman in the game.

Thanks to his cousin, Tanoai Reed, he has exactly that.

For the past 13 years, their partnership has been a successful one, and they’ve starred in over a dozen films together.

It works really well because they have the same body type.

And they even wore the same number as football players.

They both clean up well when they have to.…more