Humanities and Social Sciences

Anthropology Program

The Tongan Research Association

Introduction

PACIFIC ISLANDS history has always had its devotees outside the Islands although for the greater part of the last two hundred years Western scholars have had to depend on the collections and translations of missionaries, expatriate officials and perceptive visitors rather than on firsthand accounts by Islanders themselves. While there is a considerable amount of vernacular material extant only a small proportion of this has been translated satisfactorily. Although historians and anthropologists have been working in this field throughout the twentieth century their positive contribution to Islands history has often been offset by their dependence on the writings and collections of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and their ignorance of alternative traditions and lack of critical expertise in the assessment of traditional material.

Westerners are not alone in this. In the countries Christianised early, particularly within Polynesia, much of the traditional material survives in the written word rather than in the schooled memory of the traditional custodians of knowledge and much of that material has also been bowdlerised, sanitised, or otherwise changed by indigenous Christian and political censorship. Younger, more critical Pacific Islanders just do not have access to a comprehensive living tradition of their ancestral beliefs, especially in the controversial areas of religion and politics. They, too, are forced to stand outside the new culture of the last two hundred years and reassess their history and societal background. This is not an easy task as all too often one gets the impression that - for instance - there is a widespread belief that the present day faka Tonga or fa'a Samoa have not changed since time immemorial.

When Pacific historians began to look more closely at Islands-oriented history in the 1950s there were virtually no university-trained Islands historians in the field. In those days it was considered a luxury for Islanders to take tertiary degrees in the humanities unless they were in the Church or taking a degree course geared to a career in education. The new élite were encouraged to acquire engineering, medical or other more practical professional skills. It is not surprising, therefore, that the first Pacific Islander to achieve a degree in Pacific history, the Reverend Dr Sione Latukefu, should have come from a Church background. Now the doyen of Tongan historians he has held professorial or principal positions in Port Moresby and Suva and he is presently the President of the Tongan History Association.

In the 1960s it was hoped that soon there would be many more Islanders engaged in writing the history of their own people. Indeed, in institutions such as the University of the South Pacific, Islanders were encouraged to freely interpret their own history and non-indigenous Pacific historians were advised to leave local Islands history to Islanders. This extreme view can now be seen as a form of affirmative action. It was, however, the mainspring behind several attempts to co-ordinate the compilation of regional histories by Islanders themselves, although it is clear that the resulting compilations depended on much more co-operation between the local historians and their expatriate colleagues than the theory warranted.

There is, however, a great gap between the writing of Islands history from an Islander point of view and the critical appraisal of the historical sources. The Islander point of view, like the theoretical perspective of the historian, is a variable depending on temporal circumstances. The sources, however, remain constant, subject to different modes of interpretation. For any theoretical analysis to stand up it is essential to apply the rigorous tests of historical criticism to the sources.

In regard to Tongan history the need for closer historiographical analysis has long been felt. The Kingdom of Tonga is a Polynesian state which prides itself on its distinctive cultural heritage having never been fully colonised by one of the great imperial powers, though transformed religiously and politically by European Christianity. Because of the intense pride in custom and cultural heritage it is still possible to balance recorded and published history with oral and less well-known vernacular material. It is perhaps because Tonga is so conscious of its traditional past that the historian has an even greater responsibility to tackle problems of historiography.

When a group of Pacific historians were discussing their role in December 1975 at the Australian National University, the following points were raised with special reference to Tonga:

Most published material relating to the indigenous history of the major Polynesian groups relies almost entirely on an inadequate base, a chronology worked out in Eurocentric terms either by distinguished dilettantes in the nineteenth century or by theory-oriented anthropologists in this, usually in harmony with the interests of the indigenous hierarchy of the day. Tongan traditional history, for example, was largely `codified' and made respectable by the anthropologists Gifford and Collocott and the historian Wood, building on an earlier edifice of missionary history and the insufficiently critical researches of Basil Thomson, using traditional material to corroborate and elaborate the documentary material. Also, there seems no reason to doubt the widely held view that Tongan traditions have been edited by high-ranking Tongans, to conform with the official view of pre-European Tongan history. The progress of certainty in Tongan historiography, in my view, in no way reflects a progress in historical scholarship. It is particularly interesting that the historical documentation from Malaspina's expedition in 1793 was not available in English to Tonga's early history-makers, so that the Spanish accounts look at first sight to be highly irregular. My own instinctive reaction to the records of the Malaspina expedition is the hunch that their apparent eccentricity in itself represents the degree of deviation to be found in the work of the modern historians of Tonga. Certainly, I would like to see a number of basic Tongan political concepts re-examined in the light of more complete evidence and new theories; for example, the role of the three titular lineages and the position of the hau, both in Tongatapu and the whole group. I am led to this conclusion by my faith in the general reliability of early European observers unencumbered by party interests, by the wealth of traditional material in missionary sources hitherto unused and by traditional material that has escaped the scrutiny of those zealous to present an official line. I would also apply these observations to the whole of Polynesia and other parts of the Pacific influenced by European contact at an early date.

During the ensuing decade considerably more work was completed on Tongan history. A variety of new interpretations appeared. Even if much of the reconstruction of Tonga's past will eventually be superseded the field is now seen to be wider and richer than it appeared in 1975. There seemed to be a greater need for the historians of Tonga to get together to discuss their craft and the problems of interpretation.

In 1986, with two members of the Australian National University's Department of Pacific and Southeast Asian History (Phyllis Herda and Sione Latukefu) working on Tongan history, the prospect of two Visiting Fellows (Aletta Biersack and Elizabeth Wood Ellem) and one member of the Department of Prehistory (Dirk Spennemann) in the same field, it was decided to form a Tongan Study Group in connection with the interdisciplinary project Target Oceania and plan a Tongan History Workshop.

The Department of Pacific and Southeast Asian History gave its full support to the idea of a Workshop and a committee consisting of Niel Gunson, Phyllis Herda and Sione Latukefu was formed. As Niel Gunson was going overseas for several months, Phyllis Herda agreed to write to several specialists in Tongan history in Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney asking them to participate in the Workshop. Two factors changed the scope of the proposed gathering. The desirability of a publication emerging from the Workshop was recognised, and a number of international Tongan specialists heard of the Workshop and wished to participate. Phyllis Herda suddenly found herself organising an international conference.

As the project had grown beyond a local sounding-board for ideas and themes of Tongan history it became necessary to involve other Tongan historians, and efforts were made to assist those who wished to take part. A generous donation made it possible for two scholars to be brought from Tonga. The Archivist of the Palace Records Office in Nuku'alofa, Eseta Fusitu'a attended, and students were given special assistance with fares and accommodation. The result was a highly successful Tongan History Workshop held at the Australian National University from Wednesday 15 January to Saturday 18 January 1987. There were forty-five participants, some of them coming from as far afield as well as from Tonga as Fiji, New Zealand and the United States. There were also two observers from Western Samoa. Following Tongan custom the proceedings were opened with prayer. The programme ran for three days and in that time twenty-six papers, each lasting approximately thirty minutes, were given in conjunction with thematic discussion sessions. Despite the intensive nature of the programme, interest never flagged and discussion remained lively throughout.

Due to other commitments of the authors as well as space limitations, it was not possible for all of the papers and addresses to be included in this volume. Some remain only as oral presentations at the Workshop, while others have been published elsewhere.

In addition to the papers included in this volume the speakers and topics presented were rich and varied. 'Eseta Fusitu'a spoke on potential historical sources contained in the Palace Records Office. Sione Latukefu's talk centred on the emergence and development of the Tongan élite. Dirk Spennemann, in addition to his paper on the division of labour in early Tonga included in this volume, gave a presentation on burial customs as possible markers of prehistorical cultural change. Futa Helu's eloquent examination of the life of Taufa'ahau Tupou I, entitled `Brush Strokes on the Portrait of Taufa'ahau', was well received and demonstrated the need for more work to be done on the life and times of this eminent personality. Siupeli Taliai's presentation on Tupou College outlined the setting up of the College by The Reverend Dr J.E. Moulton and its early initiatives towards educating young Tongan women, and was illustrated by a role call of former students (information circulated by Siupeli Taliai has been reproduced in Appendix A). Na'a Fiefia, an old boy of Tonga College, spoke of the establishment and place of his alma mater in the wider community. Penny Lavaka examined the role of traditional and European values in the Tongan government. 'Opeti Taliai [M.A. student at the University of Auckland] spoke on the various language levels in traditional Tonga. He hypothesised that the vocabulary reserved for the royal family was of Samoan origin. Robert Langdon's presentation on the possible Tongan origin of settlers of the southern Marquesan islands provoked lively and interesting discussion. Uili Fukofuka gave an inspiring talk on the establishment of the newspaper, the Kele'a as well as the implications of history for current Tongan politics.

The Conference ended with a dinner which took the form of a Tongan umu, which provided an opportunity for other Pacific historians and members of the Target Oceania group to meet the participants. Trestle tables laden with pork and vegetables gave the guests some idea of Tongan hospitality.

It was obvious that the participants felt they had got good value out of the Conference and it was agreed that further conferences should be held in future years. As a result a Second Tongan History Conference was held in Auckland in 1989. A third conference took the gathering to Tonga with a week long session at Lotofoa in the Ha'apai Islands under the patronage of H.R.H. The Princess Pilolevu in January 1989 when a Tongan History Association was formally constituted. Since then there has been a fourth conference in Auckland and a fifth is likely to be held in Honolulu. The Samoan historians have also taken up the idea and held their first Samoan History Conference in Wellington in January 1990.

The close co-operation between the local and Islander historians with their expatriate colleagues meeting at regular intervals bodes well for the future of Pacific historical scholarship. Not only are the conferences sharpening historical consciousness in the regions involved but they also serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas on all facets of society. There is clearly a real future for Tongan Culture and History.

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