Transnational Tongan Life

Abstract

Teena Brown, an anthropologist, and Richard Pamatatau, a journalist, were both born in New Zealand with Teena tracing her ancestry to the Tonga Islands, and Richard to the Cook Islands. They present a photographic essay which plays on the trans in transnational by asking: what is a transnational Tongan life? Auckland, where Teena and Richard work and live, has a third of the New Zealand population, and is the fourth most ethnically diverse city in the world. Pacific Islanders constitute the majority of the population in some South Auckland suburbs, and Otahuhu, a suburb where Tongans are the bulk of the residents, is where Teena and Richard spent the village holiday of Kolonga day. The discussion and photographs explore how Tongan identity and community is performed in New Zealand by celebrating the village day.