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http://waikato.researchgateway.ac.nz/ Research Commons at the University of Waikato Copyright Statement: The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). The thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person. Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate. You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the thesis. Kakai Tonga ‘i ‘Okalani Nu’u Sila Tongan Generations in Auckland New Zealand Teena Joanne Brown Pulu A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology at the University of Waikato 2007 Hamilton, New Zealand ii Abstract This thesis is written in the format of a three act play. The author has elected this structure to frame the ethnographic data and analysis because it seemed befitting for telling my own life story alongside the memories of three generations of my matrilateral and patrilateral Tongan family residing in Auckland New Zealand. Thus, actors and scenes play out the thesis storyline in three parts where each act is titled Prologue, Dialogue and Epilogue. The Prologue, part one of this three act play, is three chapters which sets in motion the main actors – the research participants, and the scenes – the ethnographic context in which data was collected. It represents an ethnographic mosaic of memory and meaning as co-constructed by actors in recounting how they make sense of their place, their time, in a transnational history, that is, a family of stories among three Tongan generations residing largely in Auckland New Zealand. The Dialogue, part two of this three act play, is four chapters which maps out the theoretical and ethnographic territory that actors and scenes border-cross to visit. By this, I mean that research participants are political actors subject to social factors which shape how their memories and ensuing meanings are selectively reproduced in certain contexts of retelling the past and its relevance to understanding the present. The Epilogue, part three of this three act play, is the curtain call for the closing chapter. It presents an ending in which a new ‘identity’ entry made by the youngest Tongan generation creates possibilities for social change not yet experienced by prior generations residing in Auckland New Zealand. This thesis is woven into an overarching argument. Here, three generations of my matrilateral and patrilateral Tongan family residing in Auckland New Zealand intersect through two modes of memory and meaning. First, family reconstruct collective memories of ‘identity’ and ‘culture’ to make sense of how their ancestral origin, their historical past, is meaningful in their transnational lives and lifestyles. Second, inter-generational change among Tongan family residing in Auckland New Zealand is a social-political product of the transnational condition experienced by ethnic-cultural groups categorised as ‘minorities’ in the developed world. iii Note on Thesis Format As stated in the abstract, this thesis is written in the format of a three act play. Therefore, different fonts have been used for different texts that appear in the thesis script. Such a writing strategy was elected to signify to the reader visual distinction between the analysis, which constitutes the larger part of the thesis script, and the ethnographic data collected from fieldwork conversations with three generations of my matrilateral and patrilateral Tongan family residing in Auckland New Zealand. For example, when part of a fieldwork conversation appears in the thesis script, the font is noticeably different and sometimes single spacing has been used. Also, fieldwork conversations are arranged in different ways; some conversations are assembled like poetry stanza (as the example below illustrates) or a short story, some discussions between participants are written like a play to resemble an actor’s script, while other fieldwork excerpts are cited in a standard thesis format. Probably my Granddad is more Tongan My Grandma, my Granddad, they’re from different classes My Grandma, her family they were quite liberal Is that the word? Liberated? Their Dad was a rich Palangi [White] dude I don’t know what he did And their Mum was a Tongan noble or something like that So they were quite high class Whereas my Granddad he was like from this little village out in the wop wops [bush] Where he had to … Well, he didn’t have it as easy as my Grandma He had to rough it By Ani-Kāterina Amoamo (cited on p. 3 of this thesis) iv Thesis in a Nutshell This thesis explores the interplay between social memory and history among Tongan generations in Auckland New Zealand. The analysis unpacks how family memory, the life of ‘me’ in my family, travels, transitions and transforms among first, second and third generation Tongans living predominantly in Auckland. The thesis thus argues that the social life of memory and history among Tongan families in New Zealand is sensitive to transnational lifestyles and inter-generational change. Part One’s Prologue unfolds over three chapters the actors and associated surroundings critical to the thesis storyline. It argues that memory and history among Tongan generations ebbs and flows throughout familial relationships in flux, altering its course in routes of social change that reconstruct who I am in respect to others of kin and affine situated in a shifting national and transnational ethnoscape. It locates and dislocates a discourse of Tongan identity within the parameters of a Pacific Peoples history in New Zealand questioning intra-Pacific power differentials that confine and define movement beyond border controls of ethnicity and culture. Chapter Four disentangles ideological conversation interlaced in theoretical terrain which feeds cultural politics in contemporary New Zealand. It analyses the subject positioning of inter-generation Tongan memory merged and emerging among a history of Pacific Peoples in New Zealand. It argues that memory among Tongan generations converges with and diverges from the social memory reinvented and accepted as popular discourse of Pacific Peoples. Chapter Five unpacks the motion and movement in identity stories from three Tongan generations. It traces origins of family memory interwoven in a discourse of remembering, forgetting and reinventing the past to make sense of the present. It argues that inter-generation memory negotiates social fracture and familial conflict in various ways to accentuate cohesion, continuity and connection. v Chapter Six analyses the politics of doing identity work among three Tongan generations of family memories, stories and life histories. In this context, the chapter unravels how identity reinvention becomes a strategy for validating discourses of family strength, stability and security. It argues that doing identity work constitutes a politicised ideology and practice, engaged in conscious and unconscious processes of relationship and environment change. Chapter Seven situates interaction between memory and meaning among three Tongan generations in New Zealand engaged in the transience of social life. It examines points of entry, transition and departure in which social memory and its history of interpretative meaning intersect, collide and conflict among family stories. It argues that an emerging ethnographic mosaic of Tongan identity stories evokes and echoes the complexity and ambiguity of social life. Intricacy is thus mediated by memory and repositioned in stories of us, cultural truths of family, the stuff of ‘me’ and my life in my family. Chapter Eight’s closing curtain rotates to the story’s beginning. Retracing inter-generational change in Tongan identity stories which situate ‘me’ in relation to family, it recaps interpretative meaning drawn from an origin past to make sense of the complex, shifting ‘stuff of me.’ In present day Aotearoa New Zealand, my life in my family is revised, reworded and reworked to maintain consistency with a subtext that induces power and persuasion – reading ‘me’ in my family in respect to an origin imagined and willed into existence and persistence – Tonga. vi Dedication This work is dedicated to my children Toakase Raukura, Ani-Kāterina Rerewai, Rewi Maniapoto Keeti (Gage) Save your memories Share your stories And in your travels Others may share theirs Toa in her last year at school – looking forward to leaving home in 2007 for tertiary study Rewi in tupenu and ta’ovala with his name woven at the bottom made by Grandma Siu – my Dad’s Mum Ani-Kaa in an ‘Apifo’ou College jacket – my Dad’s high school in Tonga (Ani-Kaa is also wearing a black eye, bruised forehead and ankle brace from a front row rugby scuffle) Te Kauwhata North Waikato Aotearoa New Zealand March 2006 vii Acknowledgements To my matrilateral and patrilateral families to whom my story belongs Famili Kaho Tongaleleka, Mounga’one ‘i Ha’apai Famili Tuivakano Nukunuku, Fatai, Vaotu’u, Matahau ‘i Tongatapu Famili Hala Fangu (Malingi mei Fale Lahi) Kolomotu’a ‘i Tongatapu, Makave ‘i Vava’u Brown Family Highlands – Scotland, Ngāti Awa, Tuwharetoa ki Kawerau – Aotearoa/New Zealand ‘Aiga Tofae Fale Vao, Fale Fa – Upolu, Samoa