| Eseta Fusitua | |
| Office2: | Minister for Information and Communication |
| Primeminister2: | Feleti Sevele |
| Term Start2: | April 2009 |
| Term End2: | 22 December 2010 |
| Predecessor2: | Afualo Matoto |
| Successor2: | Sialeataongo Tuivakanō |
| Birth Name: | Eseta Fuafolau Vakapuna a Ngu Fulivai |
| Birth Place: | Tonga |
| Nationality: | Tonga |
| Alma Mater: | Auckland University |
| Children: | One son and one daughter |
Eseta Fuafolau Vakapuna a Ngu Fusitua, styled Dowager Lady Fusitua is a Tongan former teacher, government official and Cabinet Minister. She was the first Tongan woman to obtain a bachelor's degree.
Eseta Fusituan obtained an undergraduate degree from Auckland University in New Zealand in 1964. A year later she obtained a New Zealand teaching diploma. In 1967 she married Siaosi Alokuoulu Wycliffe Fusitua, a large landowner on Niuafoou island who would be made Lord Fusitua in 1981 and represented the Niuas Nobles' constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Tonga. They had two children. Her husband died in 2014 at the age of 87, from which time she became known as the Dowager Lady Fusitua.[1] [2]
Fusitua was an assistant teacher at Tonga High School from 1965 to 1967, before becoming a member of staff of St. Edmunds College in Canberra as a history teacher in 1973. She stayed there until 1981, in 1976 obtaining a master's degree in history from the Australian National University in Canberra, with a dissertation entitled King George Tupou II and the government of Tonga.[1]
Returning to Tonga, Fusitua served in 1982 as deputy secretary to King Tāufaāhau Tupou IV, before being appointed as senior education officer in the Ministry of Education from 1983 to 1990. In 1990, she was appointed as deputy secretary in the Prime Minister's Office and promoted to Deputy Chief Secretary to the Cabinet in 1992. In 2001 she was appointed Chief Secretary to the Cabinet, a position she held until her retirement from the civil service in 2008.[1] [3]
In 2009, Fusitua served as Deputy Chair of the Constitutional and Electoral Commission. In April 2009, the Prime Minister, Fred Sevele, announced her appointment as Minister for Information and Communication. Under the Tongan government structure, this meant that she also became a member of the 2008 Legislative Assembly. Her term came to an end at the conclusion of the parliamentary term in November 2010.[1]