Her son, Baron Fielakepa, became a government minister and Tonga's Lord Chamberlain, the most senior officer of the Royal Household.
These take many forms, including ngatu, widely known in the Pacific as tapa cloth, which is made from bark and inscribed with intricate patterns and symbols; ta’ovala, which are mats woven from strips of pandanus leaves; and kafa, which is braided coconut fibre or, sometimes, human hair.
[1][2] Like all Tongan women, Fielakepa first became aware of the art of ngatu at an early age by watching her grandmother and a group of friends making it.
It was not until 1959, as a married woman, that she learned the art of barkcloth and discovered local variations in practices and the meanings of some of the designs and symbols used in the different islands of Tonga.
[1][2] Her research is featured in the 2014 UNESCO anthology Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Themes from the Pacific Islands,[3] as well as in Tapa: From Tree Bark to Cloth: An Ancient Art of Oceania, from Southeast Asia to Eastern Polynesia by Michel Charleux.