Mila began her tertiary studies at
Massey University in 1995, where she completed her
BA in
Anthropology (
Sociology),
Masters in
Social Work. Mila subsequently moved back to Tonga for a period where she taught at Halafo'ou National Form Seven School. Her first award was the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry at the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, for
Dream Fish Floating. She then went on to contribute to anthologies such as
Whetu Moana (Auckland University Press, 2002),
Niu Voices (Huia Publishers, 2006), and
Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry (Rattapallax Press, 2002). In 2010, Mila graduated with a
PhD in
Philosophy (Sociology). Her thesis,
Polycultural capital and the Pasifika second generation: Negotiating identities in diasporic spaces, explored how young people of the Pacific
diaspora within New Zealand operate culturally and whether their cultural identities draws parallels with their wellbeing. Mila also established the Mana Moana leadership programme based on her research. As the programme director, founder and creator, the purpose of Mana Moana is to highlight and maintain ancestral
Pasifika (Indigenous peoples of the Pacific) perspectives, intellect and knowledge within modern contexts. Mila's work was described by reviewer
Nicky Pellegrino as "poetry [that] speaks to the soul". Her creative style includes many references to her cultural roots including the broader Pacific, political issues, and love. She is also interested in the idea of literary
Whakapapa (genealogy), dedicating entire sections to it ("Chanting Back To The Bones" and "Tuakana") in
Dream Fish Floating. In 2011 the first ever Pacific literature conference in New Zealand was held in
Wellington at
Victoria University, where Mila was a keynote speaker alongside other widely celebrated writers in the
Pacific region such as
Patricia Grace,
Albert Wendt and Reverend Strickson-Pua (founding member of the
Polynesian Panthers). Mila was then selected as the Tongan Pavilion at the
world poetry summit olympiad event at the
Southbank Centre in
London, in 2012. Awarded a
Fulbright scholarship in 2015, Mila had a three month residency at
University of Hawai'i. During the residency she focused on two works in development: a series of poems and a novel. In 2019, Mila was appointed a
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for her contributions to the Pacific community and as a poet. Poetry by Mila was included in
UPU, a curation of Pacific Island writers’ work which was first presented at the
Silo Theatre as part of the
Auckland Arts Festival in March 2020.
UPU was remounted as part of the
Kia Mau Festival in Wellington in June 2021. Her poetry also extends into her advocacy surrounding issues of
climate change and women reflected in her work "Global Line Up", written in
Jamaica at the climate crisis conference. This poem would later be exhibited in
Glasgow among other renowned Pasifika Poets (
Selina Tusitala Marsh and
Audrey Brown-Pereira) at
COP26. Mila has also worked as a columnist for the
Dominion Post. In 2021, Mila's poetry collection
Goddess Muscle (2020) was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the
Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. == Selected works ==