Chapter 5: Retelling Tongan Mobility Histories in Australia: Exploring Private Archives, E-Cultivated Cultural Heritage and Migration Narratives
Ruth (Lute) Faleolo
Tongan mobility histories are often told from an economic and political angle, through the lens of policymakers and economists. However, in this discussion I am retelling our mobility histories based on historical sources that are often overlooked as unimportant or too familiar. This chapter presents Tongan mobility histories that have been co-created and preserved intergenerationally. The knowledge, understandings and meanings of how, why, when and where our Tongan people have settled and thrived in Australia over time and space has been passed on through our generations’ migration narratives, preserved in private archives and shared with online collectives – further e-cultivating their cultural heritage both in Tonga and in diaspora contexts.
The Talanoa Vā methodology is a culturally responsive approach used to better understand Tongan communities in diaspora contexts like Australia. This chapter introduces the e-talanoa method – founded on Talanoa Vā – an online process of dialoguing with Tongans, something that is key to further analysis of material culture and cultural e-heritage that has been shared online with and by Tongan collectives.
A series of images from these online collectives, alongside images of private archives kept by Tongans living in diaspora contexts, and excerpts of migration narratives are interwoven into this discussion to illustrate and retell Tongan mobility histories in Australia.
Dedication
In loving memory of our son Nehemiah (2003–2020) and our daughter Angels (2000), forever in our hearts and a special part of our family’s migration narratives.
Acknowledgements
Fakafeta‘i kihe ‘Eiki ihe ene tataki mo fakamalava ae me‘a kotoa pe!
‘Oku ou tōmu‘a tuku a e fakafeta‘i kihe ‘Eiki; ke langilangi‘ia pe ia! Fakamālō atu kihe ‘eku ‘ofa‘anga: Thom, Israel, Sh’Kinah, Angels, Nehemiah, Lydiah mo Naomi. Fakamālō atu kihe ‘eku ongo mātu‘a, Faifekau ‘Ahoia mo Faifekau Falakika Lose ‘Ilaiū. Fakamālō lahi atu kihe kāinga Tonga na‘e tokoni‘i ‘eku fekumi.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the Yaggera and Yugambeh language groups of the lands on which I live and work in Brisbane. I pay my respects to elders past and present. I also acknowledge the Tongan communities and knowledge holders in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, the US and Tongatapu who have openhandedly shared their time, materials, valuable insights and narratives with me for the purpose of documenting our collective histories and migration journeys.
My PhD study of Pasifika trans-Tasman migration and wellbeing was funded by University of Queensland research scholarships, with excellent guidance and endorsement from Prof. Paul Memmott and Dr Kelly Greenop of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, as well as Prof. Mark Western and Dr Denise Clague of the Institute for Social Science Research and Life Course Centre, Brisbane. My postdoctoral inquiry into Pasifika mobilities was in association with La Trobe University’s history department, as part of the research project ‘Indigenous Mobilities to and through Australia: Agency and Sovereignties’, funded by the Australian Research Council DP200103269. Assoc. Prof. Katherine Ellinghaus and Dr Rachel Standfield generously gave me support and mentorship that continues to inspire me.
