Last Friday, July 5th, His Majesty King Tupou VI opened the new Royal Archives building in Tufumahina, an initiative by the Royal Archives Office made possible by a 3.3 million pa’anga contribution from Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China.
The Royal Archives now has its own special fale to house invaluable records of Tonga’s history and culture, ensuring they are preserved for future generations.
In 2019, King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u visited New Zealand’s National Library to discuss upgrades for Tonga’s Palace Archives. During the visit, they explored Tongan archival materials, including footage from Queen Elizabeth II’s 1954 Tonga tour and various Tongan government records housed by the library.
In 1975, Tonga celebrated its written constitution’s centenary, with the original document returning to the Royal Palace in 1980 after a stint in Canberra.
Support for the Royal Archives includes donations like storage materials from the Auckland War Memorial Museum in 2020. In 2014, the Chinese Ambassador to Tonga provided $40,414 worth of digitising equipment and a video camera to aid in preserving historical documents.
The project’s construction was managed by Ca’bella Pacific Construction.
