1.
Tonga
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Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian sovereign state and archipelago comprising 169 islands of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres scattered over 700,000 square kilometres of the southern Pacific Ocean and it has a population of 103,000 people of whom 70% reside on the main island of Tongatapu. Tonga stretches across approximately 800 kilometres in a north-south line and it is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec to the southwest, and New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the farther west. Tonga became known in the West as the Friendly Islands because of the reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga. According to the writer William Mariner, the wanted to kill Cook during the gathering. From 1900 to 1970, Tonga had British protected state status, the country never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In many Polynesian languages including Tongan, the word tonga means south, the name of Tonga is cognate to the Hawaiian region of Kona. In Malay, the name of Tonga is also cognate to the word Tenggara, an Austronesian-speaking group linked to the archaeological construct known as the Lapita cultural complex reached and inhabited Tonga around 1500–1000 BCE. Scholars have much debated the exact dates of the settlement of Tonga. Not much is known before European contact because of the lack of a writing system, in the 15th century and again in the 17th, civil war erupted. The Tongan people first encountered Europeans in 1616 when the Dutch vessel Eendracht, captained by Willem Schouten, later came other Dutch explorers, including Jacob Le Maire, and in 1643 Abel Tasman. In 1845, the young warrior, strategist, and orator Tāufaʻāhau united Tonga into a kingdom. He held the title of Tuʻi Kanokupolu, but had been baptised by Methodist missionaries with the name Siaosi in 1831. Tonga became a state under a Treaty of Friendship with Britain on 18 May 1900. The treaty posted no higher permanent representative on Tonga than a British Consul, under the protection of Britain, Tonga maintained its sovereignty, and remained the only Pacific nation to retain its monarchical government. The Tongan monarchy follows a succession of hereditary rulers from one family. The 1918 flu pandemic, brought to Tonga by a ship from New Zealand, killed 1,800 Tongans, the Treaty of Friendship and Tongas protection status ended in 1970 under arrangements established by Queen Salote Tupou III prior to her death in 1965
2.
Polynesian narrative
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Polynesians speak languages that descend from a language reconstructed as Proto-Polynesian that was probably spoken in the Tonga - Samoa area around 1000 BC. Prior to the 15th century AD, Polynesian peoples fanned out to the east, to the Cook Islands, and from there to other such as Tahiti. Their descendants later discovered the islands from Tahiti to Rapa Nui, latest research puts the settlement of New Zealand at about 1300 AD. The various Polynesian languages are all part of the Austronesian language family, many are close enough in terms of vocabulary and grammar to permit communication between some other language speakers. In some island groups, Tangaroa is of importance as the god of the sea. There is often a story of the marriage between Sky and Earth, the New Zealand version, Rangi and Papa, is a union that gives birth to the world and all things in it. There are stories of islands pulled up from the bottom of the sea by a magic fishhook, there are stories of voyages, migrations, seductions and battles, as one might expect. Stories about a trickster, Māui, are known, as are those about a beautiful goddess/ancestress Hina or Sina. In addition to these themes in the oral tradition, each island group has its own stories of demi-gods and culture heroes. Often such stories were linked to various geographic or ecological features, the accounts are characterised by extensive use of allegory, metaphor, parable, hyperbole, and personification. Orality has a flexibility that writing does not allow. In an oral tradition, there is no fixed version of a given tale, the story may change within certain limits according to the setting, and the needs of the narrator and the audience. An example is provided by genealogies, which exist in multiple, if another line should rise to ascendency, it was necessary to bestow upon the new line the most prestigious genealogy, even if this meant borrowing a few ancestors from the preceding dynasty. Each island, each tribe or each clan will have their own version or interpretation of a narrative cycle. This process is disrupted when writing becomes the means to record. When missionaries, officials, anthropologists or ethnologists collected and published these accounts, by fixing forever on paper what had previously been subject to almost infinite variation, they fixed as the authoritative version an account told by one narrator at a given moment. Some Polynesians seem to have been aware of the danger and the potential of new means of expression. As of the century, a number of them wrote down their genealogy, the history
3.
Oral history
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These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations. Oral history strives to obtain information from different perspectives and most of these cannot be found in written sources, Oral history also refers to information gathered in this manner and to a written work based on such data, often preserved in archives and large libraries. Knowledge presented by Oral History is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions, however, as the Columbia Encyclopedia explains, Primitive societies have long relied on oral tradition to preserve a record of the past in the absence of written histories. In Western society, the use of oral material goes back to the early Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, the modern concept of oral history was developed in the 1940s by Allan Nevins and his associates at Oral history has become an international movement in historical research. Oral historians in different countries have approached the collection, analysis, however, it should also be noted that there are many ways of creating oral histories and carrying out the study of oral history even within individual national contexts. Authors such as Studs Terkel, Alex Haley, and Oscar Lewis have employed oral history in their books, in another important example of the genre, a massive archive covering the oral history of American music has been compiled at the Yale School of Music. By the end of the 20th cent, Oral history had become a respected discipline in many colleges and universities. At that time the Italian historian Alessandro Portelli and his associates began to study the role that memory itself, whether accurate or faulty, plays in the themes and structures of oral history. Their published work has become standard material in the field. Since the early 1970s, oral history in Britain has grown from being a method in folklore studies to becoming a key component in community histories, Oral history continues to be an important means by which non-academics can actively participate in the compilation and study of history. However, practitioners across a range of academic disciplines have also developed the method into a way of recording, understanding. Influences have included womens history and labour history, in Britain, the Oral History Society has played a key role in facilitating and developing the use of oral history. A more complete account of the history of history in Britain. The Bureau of Military History conducted over 1700 interviews with veterans of the First World War, the documentation was released for research in 2003. During 1998 and 1999,40 BBC local radio stations recorded personal oral histories from a broad cross-section of the population for The Century Speaks series. The result was 640 half-hour radio documentaries, broadcast in the weeks of the millennium, and one of the largest single oral history collections in Europe. The interview based recordings are held by the British Library Sound Archive in the history collection. In one of the largest memory project anywhere, The BBC in 2003-6 invited its audiences to send in recollections of the homefront in the Second World War and it put 47,000 of the recollections online, along with 15,000 photographs
4.
Tongatapu
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Tongatapu is the main island of the Kingdom of Tonga and the location of its capital Nukuʻalofa. Its maximum height is 65 metres, Tongatapu is Tongas centre of government and the seat of its monarchy. Tongatapu, as a commercial and transport hub, has experienced rapid economic development than, as well as attracting many internal migrants from. The island is 257.03 square kilometres and rather flat, the island is covered with thick fertile soil consisting of volcanic ash from neighboring volcanoes. At the steep coast of the south, heights reach an average of 35 metres gradually decreasing towards the north, Tongatapu is highest in elevation around the villages of Fuaamotu and Nakolo with a height of 65 metres. North of the island are small isolated islands and coral reefs which extend up to 7 kilometres from Tongatapus shores. The almost completely closed Fangauta and Fangakakau Lagoons are important breeding grounds for birds, the lagoons were declared a Natural Reserve in 1974 by the government. The island has only but a few sandy beaches because of its raised coastlines apart from the small islands in the north boasting some of the best beaches in Tongatapu. Tongatapu has a cooler climate than the rest of Tonga as it is the southernmost group of islands in the country. Because of this, fruit production is lower in Tongatapu than it is in the islands in the north. Tongatapu is known as having one of the highest concentration of remains in the Pacific. The earliest traces of Lapita pottery found in Tonga was from around 900–850 BCE,300 years after the first settlements in Tonga were established. Archaeologist David Burley discovered the pottery around the Fangauta Lagoon,2,000 kilometres away from the Lapita pottery found at Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands. Although Tonga was always the seat of the Tongan Empire, but in an area of distances up to 1,000 kilometres, it was often only a symbolic rule. Tongatapu was discovered by Europeans on 20 January 1643 by Abel Janszoon Tasman commanding two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen commissioned by the Dutch East India Company of Batavia. The expeditions goals were to chart the southern and eastern seas and to find a possible passage through the South Pacific. The expedition set sail from Batavia on 14 August 1642, Tasman named the island t’ Eijlandt Amsterdam, because of its abundance of supplies. This name is no longer used except by historians, resolution, under British sea captain James Cook, stopped here in 1777 and left some cattle for breeding
5.
Casuarinaceae
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At one time, all species were placed in the genus Casuarina. At the time, it was somewhat controversial, the monophyly of these genera was later supported in a 2003 genetics study of the family. In the Wettstein system, this family was the one placed in the order Verticillatae. Likewise, in the Engler, Cronquist, and Kubitzki systems, the roots have nitrogen-fixing nodules that contain the soil actinomycete Frankia. The most widely used name for Casuarinaceae species is sheoak or she-oak. Male specimens bear no fruit and are colloquially referred to as heoak. Other common names include ironwood, bull-oak or buloke, beefwood, the Shire of Buloke in Victoria, Australia, is named after the species Allocasuarina luehmannii
6.
Kava
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Kava or kava-kava is a crop of the western Pacific. The name kava is from Tongan and Marquesan, other names for kava include ʻawa, ʻava, yaqona, sakau, the roots of the plant are used to produce a drink with sedative, anesthetic, euphoriant, and entheogenic properties. Kava is consumed throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawaii, Vanuatu, Melanesia and its active ingredients are called kavalactones. A Cochrane systematic review concluded it was likely to be effective than placebo at treating short-term anxiety. The several cultivars of kava vary in concentrations of primary and secondary psychoactive alkaloids, the largest number are grown in the Republic of Vanuatu, and so it is recognised as the home of kava. Kava was historically only in the Pacific islands of Hawaii, Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Fiji. Some is grown in the Solomon Islands since World War II, Kava is a cash crop in Vanuatu and Fiji. The kava shrub thrives in loose, well-drained soils where plenty of air reaches the roots and it grows naturally where rainfall is plentiful. Ideal growing conditions are 70–95 °F and 70–100% relative humidity, too much sunlight is harmful, especially in early growth, so kava is an understory crop. Female flowers are rare and do not produce fruit even when hand-pollinated. Its cultivation is entirely by propagation from stem cuttings, traditionally, plants are harvested around four years of age, as older plants have higher concentrations of kavalactones. After reaching about 2 m height, plants grow a stalk and additional stalks. The roots can reach a depth of 60 cm, Kava consists of sterile cultivars cloned from its wild ancestor, Piper wichmanii. Today it comprises hundreds of different cultivars grown across the Pacific, scholars make a distinction between the so-called noble and non-noble kava. The latter category comprises the so-called tudei kavas, medicinal kavas, the tudei cultivars may be easier and cheaper to grow, while it takes up to 5 years for noble kava to mature, non-noble varieties can often be harvested just one year after being planted. In Vanuatu, exportation of kava is strictly regulated, only strains they deem as noble varieties that are not too weak or too potent are allowed to be exported. Only the most desirable strains for everyday drinking are selected to be noble varieties to maintain quality control, in addition, their laws mandate that exported kava must be at least five years old and farmed organically. Their most popular strains are Boroguu or Boronggoru from Pentecost Island, Melomelo from Aoba Island
7.
Syzygium malaccense
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Syzygium malaccense is a species of flowering tree native to Malaysia, Indonesia Vietnam, Thailand, New Guinea and Australia. It has been introduced throughout the tropics, including many Caribbean countries and territories such as Jamaica where it is simply as Jamaican apple or the more common Otaheite apple. Syzygium malaccense has a number of English common names and it is known as a Malay rose apple, or simply Malay apple, mountain apple, rose apple, Otaheite apple, pink satin-ash and pommerac. Despite the fact that it is called the otaheite cashew. While cashew nuts may trigger allergic reactions, rose apple fruit has not been observed to do so, the combination of tree, flowers and fruit has been praised as the most beautiful of the Syzygium family. The fruit is oblong-shaped and dark red in color, although some varieties have white or pink skins, the flesh is white and surrounds a large seed. Its taste is bland but refreshing, jam is prepared by stewing the flesh with brown sugar and ginger. Malay apple is a tropical tree and will be damaged by freezing temperatures. It thrives in humid climates with a rainfall of 152 cm or more. It can grow at a variety of altitudes, from sea level up to 2,740 m, the tree can grow to 12–18 m in height. It flowers in summer, bearing fruit three months afterward. In Costa Rica, it flowers earlier, with fruit in April. Coffee growers use the species to divert birds, in Hawaii, Syzygium malaccense is called mountain apple. When the Polynesians reached the Hawaiian Islands, they brought plants, the mountain apple was one of these canoe plants, arriving 1000–1700 years ago
8.
Tupou VI
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Thumb Ahoeitu Tupou VI is the King of Tonga. He is the brother and successor of the late King George Tupou V. He was officially confirmed by his brother on 27 September 2006 as the heir presumptive to the Throne of Tonga and he was born in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga, the third son and youngest child of King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV. He was educated at The Leys School, Cambridge, from 1973–77 and he then attended the University of East Anglia, where he read Development Studies, from 1977 to 1980. He started his career in the military, joining the naval arm of the Tonga Defence Services in 1982 and he graduated from the US Naval War College as part of Class 33 in 1988. From 1990 to 1995 he commanded the Pacific-class patrol boat VOEA Pangai and he graduated with a masters in Defence Studies from the University of New South Wales in 1997 and with a MA in International Relations from Bond University in 1999. In 1998 he ended his career to become part of the government, first as the defence minister. He took over these posts from his elder brother Tupoutoʻa, at that time still the crown prince, soon he was appointed as Prime Minister on 3 January 2000, a function he kept until his sudden resignation on 11 February 2006. Its reason has never made clear, but was probably due to the unrest from a series of pro-democracy protests calling since mid-2005 for a lesser role for the royal family in government. His appointed successor, Feleti Sevele, was Tongas first prime minister who was not an estate holder or a member of the 33 noble families that make up the Tongan aristocracy. In 2008 ʻAhoʻeitu was appointed Tongas first High Commissioner to Australia, in 2013 he was appointed as Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific. HRH Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala – Siaosi Manumataongo ʻAlaivahamamaʻo ʻAhoʻeitu Konstantin Tukuʻaho and he married on 12 July 2012 the Hon. Sinaitakala Fakafanua, daughter of late High Chief Kinikinilau Fakafanua and HRH Princess Ofeina, Lady Fakafanua, both King Tupou VIs first cousins. HRH Prince Taufaʻahau Manumataongo – Taufaʻahau Manumataongo Tukuʻaho, HRH Prince Ata – Viliami ʻUnuaki-ʻo-Tonga Mumui Lalaka-Mo-e-ʻEiki Tukuʻaho. It is customary in Tongan culture that princes get a traditional chiefly title and these titles may be used in any order. Nevertheless, the sequences Lavaka Ata ʻUlukālala and ʻUlukālala Lavaka Ata were most common, as such he was until his accession to the throne known as Tupoutoʻa Lavaka. His elder son, Siaosi, is to be addressed by the title of ʻUlukālala of Fangatongo, while his second son. He was assisted by Reverend Dr ‘Ahio and Reverend Dr Tevita Havea, the president, the celebrations included many international invited guests, and an estimated 15,000 people, mostly expatriate Tongans, flew in to join the celebrations. During the ceremony, Tupou VI was anointed with oil, adorned with a ring
9.
Oxford University Press
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Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world, and the second oldest after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the known as the delegates of the press. They are headed by the secretary to the delegates, who serves as OUPs chief executive, Oxford University has used a similar system to oversee OUP since the 17th century. The university became involved in the print trade around 1480, and grew into a printer of Bibles, prayer books. OUP took on the project became the Oxford English Dictionary in the late 19th century. Moves into international markets led to OUP opening its own offices outside the United Kingdom, by contracting out its printing and binding operations, the modern OUP publishes some 6,000 new titles around the world each year. OUP was first exempted from United States corporation tax in 1972, as a department of a charity, OUP is exempt from income tax and corporate tax in most countries, but may pay sales and other commercial taxes on its products. The OUP today transfers 30% of its surplus to the rest of the university. OUP is the largest university press in the world by the number of publications, publishing more than 6,000 new books every year, the Oxford University Press Museum is located on Great Clarendon Street, Oxford. Visits must be booked in advance and are led by a member of the archive staff, displays include a 19th-century printing press, the OUP buildings, and the printing and history of the Oxford Almanack, Alice in Wonderland and the Oxford English Dictionary. The first printer associated with Oxford University was Theoderic Rood, the first book printed in Oxford, in 1478, an edition of Rufinuss Expositio in symbolum apostolorum, was printed by another, anonymous, printer. Famously, this was mis-dated in Roman numerals as 1468, thus apparently pre-dating Caxton, roods printing included John Ankywylls Compendium totius grammaticae, which set new standards for teaching of Latin grammar. After Rood, printing connected with the university remained sporadic for over half a century, the chancellor, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, pleaded Oxfords case. Some royal assent was obtained, since the printer Joseph Barnes began work, Oxfords chancellor, Archbishop William Laud, consolidated the legal status of the universitys printing in the 1630s. Laud envisaged a unified press of world repute, Oxford would establish it on university property, govern its operations, employ its staff, determine its printed work, and benefit from its proceeds. To that end, he petitioned Charles I for rights that would enable Oxford to compete with the Stationers Company and the Kings Printer and these were brought together in Oxfords Great Charter in 1636, which gave the university the right to print all manner of books. Laud also obtained the privilege from the Crown of printing the King James or Authorized Version of Scripture at Oxford and this privilege created substantial returns in the next 250 years, although initially it was held in abeyance. The Stationers Company was deeply alarmed by the threat to its trade, under this, the Stationers paid an annual rent for the university not to exercise its full printing rights – money Oxford used to purchase new printing equipment for smaller purposes
