She was a member of the Cook Islands Democratic Party and the mother of MP Vaitoti Tupa.
[1] Tupa was born in Rarotonga and educated at St. Joseph Catholic Primary School.
[2] She worked as a teacher and in retail, and served as the president of the Cook Islands Child Welfare Association and patron of the Girl Guides Cook Islands Association.
She served one term as a backbench MP, but was not re-elected in the 2010 election.
In July 2009 a report from the audit office found that Tupa had exerted undue influence over the reappointment of her son Vaitoti Tupa as director of the National Environment Services.