Telesia Kalavite

Telesia Kalavite is a professional Tongan educator from the villages of Nukuleka, Talafo‘ou, Lapaha and Neiafutahi in the Kingdom of Tonga. Her teaching experiences is in primary, secondary and tertiary education in Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. She has a PhD, MEd and PGDipEDL from the University of Waikato; a PGCertEd and a BA from the University of the South Pacific; and a DipEd and TchgCerts from Tonga Institute of Education. Her areas of expertise are in Pacific Studies, Indigenous Development, Education Studies and Tongan Language and Culture. She is a contracted and noted interpretor and translator in both Tongan and English languages. She translated Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Le Petit Prince/The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry into Tongan. She is a lecturer at Te Tumu School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her husband Sione Taulata Kalavite is from Nukuleka and Ma‘ofanga, Tongatapu. They have two sons, Sailosi and Halatoaongo Kalavite who reside in Australia with their young families.