Humanities and Social Sciences

Anthropology Program

Tongan History Association Newsletter

Vol.6 No.2, October 1995

End of an Era

The academic world has acknowledged the untimely death of our president, Sione Latukefu, with a number of moving obituaries in scholarly journals. Sione's wife, Ruth, and son, `Alopi, will be taking Sione's ashes to Tonga on December 9, and there will be a burial service at Kolovai on December 15 or 16.

Futa Helu is now the interim President of the Tongan History Association, until the next Conference and General Meeting. Futa writes: "I trust our members are all well and equally pledged to see to it that our Association thrive and move forward in every way".

Tongan History Association Conference 1997

This is to invite interested scholars to take part in the THA conference to be held in Canberra on the Australian National University campus, Tuesday, 28 January to Friday, 31 January 1997. The theme of the conference will be Tonga: World War II to the Present . Papers are called for in the following categories:

World War II

Economic History (agriculture, fishing)

Law and politics

Religion (church history, new movements)

Education (including historical records)

Perceptions of the past (developments in history, prehistory and anthropology)

Tonga in the wider world (international relations, communications)

Intending participants are asked to submit a one-page summary of their proposed papers to the committee's secretary by 14 April 1996. Work-in-progress papers will be especially acceptable. Some finance may be available to bring people to the conference from the Pacific whose papers are accepted for presentation.

Members of the committee will welcome inquiries about the conference either personally or through the secretary.

Committee Secretary

`Emeliana Afeaki Lavinia Hausia

Niel Gunson School Secretary's Office

Siosiua Lafitani RSPAS

Robert Langdon Australian National University

Deryck Scarr (Chairman) Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

Membership

Subscriptions were due by July 4th: country representatives will be forwarding me lists of financial members before the next newsletter, which will be issued early in 1997. If you have not yet paid, please do so as soon as possible to avoid missing that issue. I have not had any volunteers to act as country representatives in the United States, so U.S. members wishing to continue their membership should contact me to make other arrangements.

Fax and E-Mail

Many THA members can now be contacted on fax and/or e-mail and I would like to publish a list of fax numbers and e-mail addresses in the next newsletter. Anyone wishing to have their number and address included, please contact me: my own e-mail address is: helen_morton@muwayf.unimelb.edu.au and my fax number is: (03) 344-7894 My home address, which is best if sending mail, is 2 Moran Street, Viewbank, Victoria 3084, Australia.

New Members

Roger Cowell, 347 Thorney Leys, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX8 7GA, United Kingdom. Telephone: [0] 1993 70 85 32

Lolo Houbein, P.O Box 790, Bridgewater, South Australia 5153.

Steve Francis, Ecumenical Migration Centre, PO Box 295, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065, Australia. Fax: (03) 416 1827

Peace Corps Resource Centre, PO Box 147, Nuku`alofa, Tonga.

Changes to Members' Addresses
Kurt During is now living in Tonga. His address is PO Box 855, Nuku`alofa.

Conferences

The Australian National University's Gender Relations Project and Department of Pacific and Asian History will be holding a workshop on `Women and health in the Pacific: colonial and contemporary perspectives', November 6-8 1995. Thus far there are two papers on Tonga: one on adolescent obesity in urban Tongatapu and one on pregnancy and family planning in Tonga. For information: Ling Matsay/Dr Margaret Jolly, Gender Relations Project, RSPAS, ANU, ACT 0200, Australia. Fax: (06) 257 1893 e-mail: grp@coombs.anu.edu.au

The Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO) is holding its 25th Anniversary Meeting in Hawai`i February 6-12, 1996. There are a number of sessions that would be of interest to THA members, especially an informal session being organised by Ernest Olson of Wells College (Aurora, New York 13026) on `The Ties of Tonga from the Local to the International'. His fax number is 315/364-3227. Information on the conference and/or ASAO can be obtained from Tamar Gordon, ASAO Secretary/Treasurer, Department of Language, Literature and Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 USA. email: gordot@rpi.edu fax: 518/276-4092

The Twentieth Annual University of Hawai`i Pacific Islands Studies conference: `Contested Ground: Knowledge and Power in Pacific Islands Studies' will be held 7-9 December in Honolulu, Hawai`i. For information contact Tisha Hickson, Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai`i at Manoa, 1890 East-West Road, Moore 215, Honolulu HI 96822. Fax: 808/956-7053 E-mail: ctisha@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu

The Pacific History Association's annual conference will be held July 9-13 1996, University of Hawai`i at Hilo. The conference theme will be `History, Culture and Power in the Pacific'. Information about this conference can also be obtained from Dr Hickson, at the above address.

The Australian Anthropological Society held its annual conference at the University of Adelaide in September, with a session entitled `Pacific Substance(s) and Form(s)' chaired by Grant McCall. Helen Morton gave a paper on her current research: `Creating their own culture: diasporic Tongans'.

People

New member Roger Cowell is currently working as a registered nurse in a community hospital near Oxford. Prior to qualifying as a nurse, sixteen years ago, he worked in Tonga, studied Pacific History and Anthropology in Auckland and Adelaide, with fieldwork in Tonga. He is especially interested in local identity and change, with particular emphasis on the civil wars, and the role of the Ha`a Havea; he is also committed to nursing and health care in the Pacific region. Roger plans further fieldwork and would like to hear from other THA members with similar interests.

Rory Ewins in the Department of Political and Social Change, RSPAS, Australian National University submitted his PhD thesis in July. Rory's thesis is entitled `Tradition, politics and change in contemporary Fiji and Tonga'.

THA extends sympathy to Salote Fukofuka on the death of her brother.

Recent THA visitors to Tonga were Paul van der Grijp and Francoise Marsaudon, who were in Vava`u for 3 months, the former researching cash crops and the latter researching koloa . Paul and Francoise were returning to Europe via Hawai`i.

Phyllis Herda was also in Tonga, August 8-29, researching the distribution of koloa, especially the origin and distribution of quilts. Phyllis is also revising her translation of the Tonga section of the Malaspina journal, for publication. Phyllis is now lecturing in Women's Studies at the University of Auckland.

New member Lolo Houbein is a writer interested in Tonga and in the larger patterns of culture and migrations around the Pacific and Asia. Lolo taught a creative writing course, `Tukulaumea: leaving a trail of leaves' at `Atenisi in 1991.

Henry Ivarature, THA member from Papua New Guinea, who was taught by Sione L_t_kefu and went on to do doctoral research in Tonga, has taken up employment with the Papua New Guinea National Research Institute as a Research Fellow with the Social Studies Division. His address is PO Box 5854, Boroko, NCD, PNG. Fax: (675) 26 0213

Adrienne Kaeppler was in Tonga from August 28 to September 18, researching old ngatu patterns, brass bands, and kie hingoa.

Marco Kappenberger of PO Box 1438, Apia, Western Samoa, has recently written to request information on THA membership. He explained that he has been investigating pre-contact relations between Samoa and Tonga, Fiji, the Cook Islands, and French Polynesia. He requests advice on the best map of the Pacific Islands: can anyone help?

Marco also advises that he will also be travelling to Ouvea as part of his research. Any THA members interested in corresponding with him can do so on the above address or by Fax: 685 24000.

Avigail Morris, THA member, writes that she is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at Ben Yurian University in Israel. She spent much of 1993-4 in Tonga doing research on female games and sports. While there, Avigail and her husband taught at `Atenisi. Her thesis will be entitled: `Between tradition and modernization: the changing patterns of female games in Tonga' and deals with the function of games as both a stabilising force in culture as well as catalysts for cultural change.

Avigail will be giving a paper on her research at the CORAIL colloquim in Noumea (see previous newsletter) in November. She can be contacted at Kibbutz Ketura, D.N. Chevel Eilot 88840, Israel. Fax: 972-7-356465

Vou Vaea took up his appointment as Secretary of the Tongan Traditions Committee in April, and is located at the Palace Office.

Elizabeth (Pesi) Wood-Ellem was in Tonga from August 8 to September 6, mostly looking for photographs for her forthcoming book on Queen S_lote. Pesi has been in New Zealand (Auckland University and the Macmillan Brown Centre in Christchurch) since February 1994, and will be returning to Melbourne in November.

Theses

(Another to add to the list of past theses)
Chapman, B.A. 1972 Adaptation and maintenance in the extended family of Tongan immigrants: Salt Lake City. M.A., University of Utah.

Recent Publications

Brown, Richard

1995 `Hidden foreign exchange flows: estimating unofficial remittances to Tonga and Western Samoa' Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 4(1).

Brown, Richard and John Foster

(forthcoming) `Some common fallacies about migrants' remittances in the South Pacific: lessons from Tongan and Western Samoan Research' Pacific Viewpoint.

Brown, Richard, John Foster and John Connell

1995 `Remittances, savings, and policy formation in Pacific Island States' Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 4(1).

Burley, David

1994 `Settlement pattern and Tongan prehistory reconsiderations from Ha`apai' Journal of the Polynesian Society 103(4):379-412.

Connell, John and Richard Brown

1995 `Migration and remittances in the South Pacific: towards new perspectives' Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 4(1).

Cowling, Wendy

1995 Review of Paul van der Grijp's Islanders of the South and Arne Aleksej Perminow's The Long Way Home. Journal of the Polynesian Society 104(1):137.

Foster, John

1995 `The relationship between remittances and savings in small Pacific Island states: some econometric evidence' Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 4(1).

Gunson, Niel

1995 Review of Ian Campbell's Island kingdom. The Contemporary Pacific 7(1):209-211.

Huntsman, Judith (ed.)

1995 Tonga and Samoa: Images of gender and polity. Christchurch: Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies.

James, Kerry

1995 Review of Paul van der Grijp's Islanders of the South . The Contemporary Pacific 7(1):211-213.

1995 `Right and privilege in Tongan land tenure', in R. G. Ward and E. Kingdon (eds) Land, custom and practice in the South Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1995 `Polynesia in review: issues and events, 1 July 1993 to 30 June 1994: Tonga'. The Contemporary Pacific 7(1):164-167

Khalidi, N. A.

1995 `Populations, fertility, mortality and migration in Tonga' Pacific Health Dialog 2(1).

Lawson, Stephanie

(forthcoming) Tradition versus democracy in the South Pacific: Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

(forthcoming) `Self-determination as ethnocracy: perspectives from the South Pacific', in M.N.S. Sellers (ed) New world order: sovereignty, human rights and the self-determining of peoples . Oxford: Berg

(forthcoming) `The tyranny of tradition' in N. Thomas and T. Otto (eds) Narrating the nation in the Pacific.

Morton, Helen

1995 `My "chastity belt": avoiding seduction in Tonga', in Don Kulick and Margaret Willson (eds) Taboo: sex, identity and erotic subjectivity in anthropological fieldwork, pp.168-185. Routledge: London.

A new Oceania: rediscovering our sea of islands.

1995 School of Social and Economic Development, USP. [For information, contact Barbara Hau`ofa, Publications Officer, SSED, Suva, Fiji. e-mail: hauofa_b@usp.ac.fj

Pohiva, S. `Akilisi

1995 `Democracy and media in Tonga', in David Robie (ed) Nius Bilong Pasifik: mass media in the Pacific. [For information: Unisearch PNG Pty Ltd. PO Box 320, University Post Office, Papua New Guinea. OR in Australia: Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, University of Technology- Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007. Fax: (02) 281 2976 e-mail: acij@uts.edu.au

Small, Cathy

1995 `The birth and growth of a Polynesian women's exchange network', Oceania 65, 3:234-256 [on Tongan women]

Urbanowicz, Charles F.

1995 Review of Paul van der Grijp's Islanders of the South . Ethnos 59(3-4):276-278.

Valjavec, Friedrich

1995 Review of Paul van der Grijp's Islanders of the South . Anthropos 90:263-264.

Books Pasifika: a number of new releases (and rereleases) are available, including:

Arbeit, Wendy

Tapa in Tonga. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press

Fanua, Tupou Posesi and Lois Webster

Malo Tupou: an oral history. Auckland: Pasifika Press

Hau`ofa, Epeli

Kisses in the Nederends. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press

Parsons, Claire (ed.)

Healing practices in the South Pacific. Hawai`i: Brighan Young University

Rutherford, Noel

Shirley Baker and the King of Tonga. Auckland: Pasifika Press

For information: Books Pasifika, PO Box 68446, Newton, Auckland 1, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Fax: 64 (0) 9 377-9528

e-mail: books@pasifika.co.nz

** Elizabeth Wood-Ellem and Phyllis Herda are co-editing a book to be called Portraits of Polynesian Women. They have lined up fourteen contributors, and the subjects will include women from Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawai`i, Tokelau, Marquesas, Cook Islands, Tikopia, Aotearoa/New Zealand. A publisher has expressed interest and they expect the volume to appear late in 1996 or early 1997.

National Centre for Development Studies: South Pacific Data Base

Avaible on disk and updated twice yearly, this data base includes a range of social and economic data on South Pacific Island nations. For information, contact `Alopi Sione Latukefu, South Pacific Economic and Social Database, National Centre for Development Studies, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.

Fax: (06) 257 2886 e-mail: Alopi.Latukefu@anu.edu.au

Thanks to Elizabeth Wood-Ellem and Paul van der Grijp for their contributions to this newsletter. I look forward to receiving many more items for the next newsletter, tentatively scheduled for February 1996.

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