PMN Summer Series: Inky Pinky Ponky star shares the story behind hit show

Welcome to PMN's Summer Series, where we republish some of our best and most popular stories from the last 12 months or so.

Amanaki Prescott-Faletau (Vava’u, Tonga Tapu) is set to become a household name.

The actor, writer, dancer, choreographer, producer, director and Creative + Navigator at F’ine Pasifika Aotearoa Trust is the lead actor, co-writer, and executive producer of Inky Pinky Ponky.

The Tikilounge Productions-made ​series launched on Māori television in June, as well as premiering worldwide on the Coconet TV on 4 July, and it delivered hyena laughs and the traumas and triumphs of queer adolescence performed by a dynamic Pacific cast with Faletau leading.

Based on her own life story, the show follows a young fakaleiti who falls in love with the captain of the first XV at St Valentine’s High School. A unique journey ensues navigating intolerance and bigotry on the way to finding happiness.

“It’s the first Tongan fakaleiti series that means it represents a whole heap of things – it represents our culture, our values, our religion, and issues that a lot of young teens are still facing today.

“My heart and soul went into this, so it’s like bearing and giving out a piece of yourself and having it open to the world to judge and have a spin on,” says Prescott-Faletau.

Directed by Damon Fepulea’i and Ramon Te Wake, Inky Pinky Ponky​ was originally co-written as a stage play by Leki Jackson-Bourke and Prescott-Faletau. The play won the hearts of Pacific youth with many selecting the work for high school productions.

A proud graduate of PIPA (Pacific Institute of Performing Arts) that closed in recent years, Prescott-Faletau would love to see more opportunities for emerging Pacific artists to pathway into creative careers.

"I don't think there are enough drama schools out there with a Pacific-led curriculum.​

“I wrote the original script as a solo play back in 2011 then Leki and I met up a couple of years later and decided to make it into a bigger play.

“Eventually a lot of schools got interested and ended up doing it for their productions, MIT put it up and then Auckland Theatre Company – it was published into a book and now it’s a series."

Behind the glitz and glamour, Prescott-Faletau has worked tirelessly bringing this vision to life for the wider Pacific queer community, nurturing a culture of acceptance along the way.

Although the series is based on her own experiences, she says the story isn’t just hers.

“We’re in a day and age where our brown queer people are more visible – we are everywhere.

“A lot of people have hit me up on social media about the show, a lot of queens are fired up to see it.

"It makes me feel mafana. It encourages me to go out and talk more about these stories.”