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Humanities and Social Sciences |
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Anthropology ProgramThe Tonga Research Association
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The Tongan History Association was established after the Second Tongan History Conference in Ha'apai, 1989. Chaired by the first President of the Association the late Reverend Dr. Sione Latukefu and a number of like minded scholars, the Tongan History Association was established as an association whose main purpose was to preserve, study and discuss Tongan History at a micro-level, from the past right up to the present.
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The association's constitution, ratified at the January 1997 conference, states the association's objectives to be: ‘To encourage the exchange of information amongst individuals, institutions and organisations interested in Tongan history, anthropology and related disciplines' and ‘To encourage the study, discussion, writing and publication of material on Tonga'. To give an idea of what the Tongan History Association and Conferences are about we have included with the kind permission of the editors, the following articles which appeared in the publication, Gunson, Herda and Terrell (eds) Tonga Culture and History, RSPAS, ANU, 1990.
In 2005 the name of the association was changed to “Tonga Research Association” by agreement of members, in order to better reflect the multidisciplinary nature of it membership. Members represent a wide range of academic fields, including history, geography, anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, and others. The association’s conferences, held every two years (alternating between Tonga and overseas) are an opportunity for scholars – many of whom are Tongan - to share their knowledge on a wide range of issues related to Tonga and its people.
Welcome to the Tonga Research Association