Home Abroad: Exploring Aspects of Cultural Maintenance within Tongan Families in Tonga and New Zealand

Abstract

When Tongans leave their homeland, it is in search of a better life. New Zealand is viewed as the land of 'milk and honey', a land of economic and social opportunities. Many Tongans will be unprepared to face the harsh reality of living in an industrial and competitive society. This thesis explored the role of the Tongan family system in cultural maintenance in Tonga and New Zealand. The purpose of this study has been to show how Tongan people go about maintaining their Tongan culture and values within an ever changing society like New Zealand and within their own Tongan society. There are four participating families in this study: three in New Zealand, and one in Tonga. Two individual Tongan people were also involved in this study, a Church Minister and a Community leader. During the preliminary stages of this study, four Tongan values were identified as being crucial to the Tongan people in their daily lives. I called this the factor "f' concepts in cultural maintenance, and these concepts formed the basis of my thesis. I found the rationale of these concepts are still the same but the practising of these concepts have changed. The findings are then discussed in terms of its implication for Social Work theory, practice and policy. The participant observation methodology has been employed as the central technique of research, as it was the most appropriate methodology for the type of research I wanted to do and the kind of information I wanted to collect.