www.tonganz.org reports a fresh appeal for the displaced - and overlooked? - population of Niuatoputapu, many still without temporary let along permanent shelter says Tongan Advisory Council chair Melino Maka..

The shelter need remains 60 days after the tsunami of 30 September killed nine Tongans and destroyed 79 buildings in the isolated northern Tongan island near to Samoa he said in announcing a fresh attempt to get attention - in the face of public focus on Samoa's own real needs.

In the first of a week of www.tonganz.org special reports to focus on the disaster that hit Niua, he recalled how the New Zealand government aid agency NZAID had said in the first 30 days after the waves struck they awaited a Tongan government request for housing reconstruction.

But Niua people think that is not good enough, he said, citing the comments of a priest who has just been to the ravaged Island. "Why wait? Our people are desperate and longing for help" says Fr Mateo Kivalu, just back to Wellington from Niuatoputapu.

Archdiocese of Wellington priest Father Mateo Kivalu said 60 days after the wave struck his people are impatient to see action.

The Tongan government and its partners has left him and isolated Niua people confused.

Mr Maka said that with the help of Asia Pacific Economic News NZ Parliamentary Press gallery correspondent Anthony Haas, the web site was preparing a week of fresh reports from Niua and places influencing it.

Here is a taste of what is to come on www.tonganz.org - and about which fresh comment is being sought said Mr Haas, Fr Mateo and Mr Maka.

Dilemmas and choices facing Niua Tongan tsunami victims

Wellingtonian Fr Mateo told a Nov 1 2009 meeting on tsunami ravaged Niuatoputapu he saw contradiction between three voices of the Tongan government - and back in Wellington relatives are calling for "action".

The Kingdom of Tonga and its friends face dilemmas.

Fr Mateo, Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Wellington covering Tongan communities at the top of the South Island and bottom of the North Island spent November in his home island of Niuatoputapu (Niua), and Tongatapu, to do what he could for his people. His uncle had died in the September 30 tsunami that killed nine Tongans in three villages of the northern Tongan island, near to Samoa, which had been hit even harder by the rogue waves.

Temporary shelter after Niua's tsunami relief

Fr Mateo Kivalu's Uncle Sililo wants to stay put in Hihifo. "I've never built a house" the priest who has spent five years ministering to Marlborough and Wellington Tongans says. Nevertheless during his November visit to Niua to see what he could do to help; he set to with his family - and created a shelter of corrugated iron and wood salvaged from destroyed houses.

The approximately 12 square metre shelter or little house known in Tongan as fakahekeheke, has a dirt floor and no windows - but does have a door for entrance and another for access to a kitchen. However, either a kitchen - or even an outside toilet have yet been built. What discomfort and sickness will the inhabitants face?

The permanent house dream for Niua residents

What is happening to help Niua people achieve their permanent home dreams?

Fr Mateo Kivalu calls for a non-government organisation (ngo) effort to get houses rebuilt for people in the three Niua villages of Hihifo, Falehau and Vaipoa.

Now back in Wellington in the run up to Christmas the priest who went to Niua to see what he could do to help wants to get appropriate houses and community spaces designed.

Niua's dilemma posed by Tongan land rights

It is not easy for Wellington based Fr Mateo Kivalu to clearly anticipate what follows Tongan government indications land higher above the beach, inland, can be provided for displaced Niua residents. The Ma'atu land behind Hihifo, the village most seriously affected by the September 30 waves, is now distributed to absentee and other land users. So what land can be available for which people directly and indirectly affected by the waves? Dilemmas for Haukinima as Tongan Government representative

Peau Haukinima was the Niuatoputapu MP until the last election - and acted as Tongan government representative during Fr Mateo's November visit.

Mr Haukinima's job is to be spokesman of the government. Information is meant to come through him to the people Fr Mateo said after several weeks in Niua.

Fr Mateo tells of local reports that Mr Haukinima said ten days after the waves struck that the Tongan government wanted Niuatoputapu people to re-establish houses up the hill. Fr Mateo could not report, when he returned to Wellington at the end of November, what had been done to achieve this policy.

Fr Mateo as shelter builder

Wellington based Fr Mateo had never built before.

But on his two week November visit to Niua to meet relatives, friends and strangers in need, he built a shelter less than eight -ten feet square in most seriously harmed Hihifo village.

This house was for Simione Hami, brother of Salote, and a 14 year old niece.

Walls were made of tin from destroyed roofs. Framing timber was also salvaged from destroyed houses. Fr Mateo was pleased he could help build something from nothing.

The floor was soil and grass. There were no windows. There are two doors. One goes into the house. One is to the kitchen. "But we never built the kitchen." "For my uncle I built a similar shelter" he says.

I want to build a decent home - more than a house - where there are three or four bedrooms, lounge, with bathroom and toilet outside the house.

"I want to build that home on their existing piece of land, or wherever they want it to be built" Fr Mateo said as he prepared to follow up his mission to Niua.

What happened?

At approximately 1848 GMT on 30 September 2009, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake located at 15.3 South and 171 West at a depth of 33 kms between Tonga and Samoa, triggered the first tsunami ever to hit Tonga

"The immediate response operation as Phase I of the entire relief arrangement operates as one team with one goal - to provide most effective and timely relief operation for the people of Niuatoputapu. The recovery and reconstruction phases would follow" the authors of the initial Tongan government report said.