I like the story of a visit to Tonga as we had a visit there a couple of years ago and also compared it with Fiji. I like this bit:
On one of these rides back to our hotel room, we were talking about the similarities in the Pacific islands when we came up with names.
Makereta and I were talking about how Lauans (Where I have maternal links to) name their children with names that had meanings literally.
Our facilitator from SPREP Nanette Woonton, who came from the Cook Islands, told us of how someone from the Cooks was named "MyMamaandPapamademebehindtheEmpirecinema" (My Mama and Papa made me behind the Empire cinema and Samoan Iutita Loau remembered a friend whom they only refer to as Wales had his first name as WalesversusWesternSamoa which also included the name of the venue and the score including the year the game was held. It was in fact Samoa's first game against Wales.
Here is the full story from today's Fiji Times.A Tongan experience
Vuniwaqa Bola-Bari
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
VISITING the Friendly Isles and the only island kingdom in the Pacific is something I never expected and did not know what to expect from it either.
From childhood memory, I only learnt about it through social studies but it was a place where I also have links, because my maternal great grandmother hails from Kolonga in Tonga and was born in Fiji when their dad, Viliame Fonolahi, a reverend than, came to Mualevu in Vanuabalavu to serve an appointment from the Methodist Church.
However, my grandmother, mother nor I had been to Tonga until I went in July.
It was to be my first time to the island kingdom, thanks to the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP).
Six of us caught our flight from Nadi International Airport, just a week after the King's coronation. When we arrived, the festive mood was still in the air.
Coconut trees swayed gently outside the perimeter of the Fuamotu International Airport but comparing it to Nadi International Airport would be farfetched.
Love for the king
I've only heard of how much they respect and love those in the royal family but I never realised how much it was until setting foot on the Island.
From the airport right to the hotel where we were accommodated, humongous banners carrying the picture of King Tupou IV and his wife Queen Nanasipau'u Tukuaho hung from buildings greatly displaying the royals. Small triangular flags decorated the roadside, lamp posts were draped with gatu or Tongan tapa.
Huge replica crowns were seated on top of arched-type billboards across the roads with messages congratulating the king on his coronation.
Mind you, these were still there, a week after the coronation when we arrived and even when we left, they left the decorations beautifying their Island.
Although the coronation was only held at Nuku'alofa, other districts on Tongatapu and I was told that even other smaller islands, did their own decorations marking the coronation of their king.
They even had alcohol bottled in a special bottle especially for the coronation of King Tupou IV.
Island life
We stayed at the Little Italy Hotel for the first week located at the Kolomatua District on Nuku'alofa before we moved to the Scenic Hotel on the second week.
Unlike Fiji where time in Suva seems to be at a faster pace, the island kingdom still has that island taste — laid-back way of life, where everything and anything would walk about freely, including pigs crossing the main roads without a care.
Their graveyards were probably two times bigger than the normal ones we have back home, tiled, and fenced, with big decorations.
We would later pass comments that if that was at home, the decoration would be missing after a few days.
I was told by some locals that during special days like Easter, Christmas or even when it's the birthday of their late relatives, the whole family would be at the grave of their late family member feasting.
SPREP workshop and
Pacific Meteorology Council
I arrived on Tuesday, July 14 with veteran journalist Samisoni Pareti who was one of the workshop facilitators, and three other Wantok colleagues; Heather Maraki from Vanuatu, Gregory Moses from PNG and Francis Talasasa from the Solomon Islands.
Our Samoan friends had arrived earlier in the day as they came in via Auckland.
Our first three days had us tied up to a workshop on climate change where we had speakers from Tonga's Meteorology Department and officers from SPREP which deals with Climate Change around the region.
In the second week, it was when we had to cover the PMC and the ministerial meeting on the last day.
We were all geared up for it but our hosts at the Scenic weren't very friendly, but we had no choice because it was the only available one as the other hotels on Nuku'alofa were booked out with Tongans from overseas who were there for their family reunions and other functions.
Every day after the program, we had to travel about 20 minutes (as if I was driving) back to our hotel, it was quite a long drive back but being with a group of Pacific journalists, the drive seemed short as we always shared jokes along the way.
On one of these rides back to our hotel room, we were talking about the similarities in the Pacific islands when we came up with names.
Makereta and I were talking about how Lauans (Where I have maternal links to) name their children with names that had meanings literally.
Our facilitator from SPREP Nanette Woonton, who came from the Cook Islands, told us of how someone from the Cooks was named "MyMamaandPapamademebehindtheEmpirecinema" (My Mama and Papa made me behind the Empire cinema and Samoan Iutita Loau remembered a friend whom they only refer to as Wales had his first name as WalesversusWesternSamoa which also included the name of the venue and the score including the year the game was held. It was in fact Samoa's first game against Wales.
Oholei
After the first day, we were all hosted by the Tongan Government to Oholei Beach Resort.
We were hosted in a cave made up beautifully in a very artistic way and is owned by the Kami family.
This beach resort had a plethora of cuisine made the Tongan way with the plates made from banana stems.
From seafood cooked in coconut milk, sweet potatoes, yams and cassava cooked in coconut milk and pork cooked over an open fire, the Tongans love their food just like their Pacific Island neighbours.
These were food served to us at the resort and with a live band singing Pacific hits, it couldn't have been better.
From that night until we left we felt it was the best we could have seen of Tonga.
It was also on this trip to Oholei that we were told that one of the band members is the son of Famous Fijian musician, Sakiusa Bulicokocoko.
He had a mellifluous voice, singing his dad's hits, and when I realised who he was, I wasn't surprised, he is from Tailevu brought up by his Tongan mother in Tonga- he is known as Christopher Luka.
Last night
We were also hosted to another beach resort on the west side of the island on the last night to farewell all the participants at the PMC.
It was at Vakaloa where everyone was hosted to different Tongan traditional dances from the tau'aluga to the lakalaka.
This was also where we dined with the Tongan Crown Prince Ulukalala.
Housing
On Tongatapu, from the Fuamotu Airport to Nuku'alofa and to other villages in Tonga, there was no segregation in their housing. They all lived together, unlike Fiji, where we have places like Namadi Heights, Beyview Heights, Domain in Suva and Delailabasa in Labasa, Sandalwood at Waiyavi in Lautoka that have mansion-type houses, in Tonga there was no segregation.
You could see a home made out of corrugated iron right next to a double-story house which looked like that of homes overseas.
Fijian community
Tonga has a sizeable Fijian community. They are involved in different things; some of them are engaged in running a business, others are in other fields of endeavour. And when talking about Fijians in Tonga, you have to mention Lomaiviti.
It is like a village also on Tongatapu made up of Fijians who were originally from Lomaiviti and were given that piece of land where they are settled by the late Queen Salote.
I met former Fijian veteran journalist Iliesa Tora and his family in Tonga. They took me for a quick tour around the small island, visiting some of Tonga's great sites.
From Lomaiviti, where his uncles live to Houna — the village of the current Queen Nanasipau'u and its blowholes to Niutoua where they have the Stone Hedge and to the beach where Captain James Cook first landed on Tonga.
Cook's time in Tonga is commemorated by a plaque at the site of his landing at Tongatapu in 1777, where it is said that he rested under a great banyan tree before journeying to the capital, Mu'a, to see the king.
The plaque reads: "Here stood formerly the great banyan 'Malumalu 'o Fulilangi' or Captain Cook's tree under the branches of which the celebrated navigator came ashore on his way to visit Pau, the Tu'i Tonga (sacred king of Tonga) on the occasion of the 'Inasi (presentation of the first fruits) in the year 1777."
I was also later shown the villa of the late King GeorgeTupou V which I am told now is home to one of Fiji's sons — Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba, who is better known as Roko Ului. He was in the military and fled to Tonga just as he was charged with mutiny and accused of attempting to overthrow Bainimarama's government.
With his family's connection in Tonga, Roko Ului is well respected there among the Fijians as he is among the Tongans.
I was also told later of how some Fijians were faced with problems of returning home after their employers confiscated their passports and told them to leave.
After we left on Saturday, one Fijian girl, left the week after for Fiji with some help from the Fijian community and Tora who assisted in trying to get her home.
In some ways, Tonga has become like the US for Fijians, not in the sense of development but in the sense of keeping Fijians there, some overstaying but that government not wanting to deport them unless they got involved in criminal activity.
If there's one thing I learnt during my short stay in Tonga, it was how they value the family, how Tongans overseas would still send something back to their relatives back on the island, be it nuclear or extended family, the help was always there.
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