Tonga’s future lives in its villages
Connections between a remote Tongan village and its expats in South Auckland is the subject of a new documentary being made at AUT.
The film is believed to be the first Tongan-language PhD documentary film to be made at a university in Aotearoa, and perhaps in the world.
It explores the ways that farmers in Leimatu’a village in the Vava’u islands maintain their communal identity when many of its people have migrated overseas to work in cities like Auckland.
“I want Pacific peoples, especially those from Tonga, to see villages in the outer islands from the perspective of the communities themselves,” says Sylvester Tonga, filmmaker and PhD candidate.
“Leimatu’a village is not waiting around for aid donors and governments to save us. We are busy working for our families and community.
“We are making a better life for ourselves, and we’re connected with kinfolk in Aotearoa, Australia, and America who buy our agricultural produce, kava, and hand-woven mats knowing that they are contributing money to the village economy, which the people need to sustain their humble households."
Minimalist filming in tropical heat
Sylvester Tonga says the location of the Vava’u islands introduced challenges.
“Documentary creators working in the outer islands of Pacific Islands states and territories have to be practical-minded, resourceful, down-to-earth people, otherwise you’d find it difficult to adjust to the environment, the people, the way of life,” he says.
For example, passengers on the small plane that flies from Tonga’s main island to the Vava’u islands have a limited amount of baggage.
“We could only take one full-frame 35mm camera and a 24-70mm lens, one GoPro action camera and a mini extension pole, one travel tripod, and one compact microphone … plus a small-sized checked-in luggage for our shorts, tee-shirts, and a pair of jandals.”
The filmcrew were well-versed in the technical side of filming and had the right personalities to adapt to the outer islands, he says.
”That helped us get the shots and sound, plus fit in with the Leimatu’a village community. We were well prepared for minimalist filming in tropical heat.”
Another challenge was that the crew couldn’t use the camera drone in Leimatu’a because the village airport was too close – so camera operator Rewi Amoamo climbed a coconut tree to record “fake” drone shots of farmers cultivating the plantation.
“He knew how to climb a coconut tree from spending time as a child in his mum’s village,” Sylvester says.
“This is what a production shoot looks like in a rural village: it comes down to your resourcefulness and using the natural environment around you to get the shots.”
A groundbreaking documentary
Teena Brown Pulu is an Associate Professor in Te Ara Poutama, AUT’s faculty of Māori and Indigenous development.
She is supervising Sylvester’s PhD and says it is groundbreaking.
“This will be the first PhD documentary produced in the Tongan language in an Aotearoa university, if not the world.
“That in itself is a momentous achievement, not just for Tongan people but for Māori and Pacific communities who want to see more documentary research produced in their respective languages from our universities.”
The information and ideas of the study will have a greater impact on communities because it will be free and in a format that is relevant to people’s everyday lifestyles, she says.
“Tongans living in rural villages in Vava’u, along with Tongans residing in Los Angeles or any city in the world, can view Sylvester’s documentary on their smartphones and digital devices. This was an important outcome we wanted to achieve: that is, to give the digital artefact back to the people.”
Sylvester says he wouldn’t have been able to make the documentary if it wasn’t for the support of his village, the film crew and editor, and his supervisor.
The undertaking has taught him to draw on the resilience, resourcefulness, and teamwork that he was socialised with growing up in Leimatu’a village in Vava’u.
Sylvester Tonga says he would love to see Māori and Pacific peoples build up documentary research made in their own languages.
“This is a collective goal we can, and should, contribute to through doctoral study. Think of it this way, you’re fulfilling your cultural obligations of community service to your people, and you’re advancing the University’s knowledge on cultural protocols and processes that we use to create documentaries as insiders and language speakers of our communities.”
Sylvester Tonga’s PhD is in its final year and when complete will be uploaded to Tuwhera, AUT’s open access research repository.