5.8 Summary of chapter

Tongan mobility histories are often told from an economic and political angle, through the lens of policymakers and economists. However, in this discussion I have retold our mobility histories based on historical sources that are often overlooked as unimportant or too familiar. This chapter presented Tongan mobility histories that have been co-created and preserved intergenerationally. The knowledge, understandings and meanings of how, why, when and where 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 introduced the e-talanoa method – founded on Talanoa Vā – an online method 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 were interwoven into this discussion to illustrate and retell Tongan mobility histories in Australia.