Sulieti Fieme'a Burrows ONZM is a Tongan New Zealand that makes tapa cloth. Sharing this knowledge with her daughter, Tui Emma Gillies, who she often collaborates with, they are regarded as scholars of the art. Their shared passion and close relationship is evident in their collaborative work, with a hybrid style harmonizing traditional tapa with contemporary elements. Burrows grew up in Tonga and learnt all her making skills from her mother and other people in her village. Burrows is an important knowledge holder in her community and the wider global community. Burrows work revisits traditional often, ancient designs that are customarily black and brown, and dealing with themes from the standard of geometric grids and floral motifs, that communicate customary practices and traditions of life in Tonga. Burrows strives to utilize as many natural resources as possible in tandem with modern materials. Tapa cloth itself is entirely decomposable, and the glue used to paste each piece together is mixed with tapioca starch, half-cooked until the texture’s right. The main modern adaptations in creating tapa art include Indian ink. 

The mother-daughter duo have presented, exhibited, and sold their art to museums and private collections around the world and were the recipients of the 2018 Creative New Zealand Heritage Arts Award. They have works in collections around the world including The National Maritime Museum, Auckland War Memorial Museum, GRASSI museum in Germany, National Gallery of Victory in Melbourne and Pick Museum of Anthropology in Illinois, USA.