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.
Necktie
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A necktie, or simply tie, is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, zipper tie, cravat, the modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck ties are generally unsized, but may be available in a longer size, in some cultures men and boys wear neckties as part of regular office attire or formal wear. Some women wear them as well but usually not as often as men, neckties can also be worn as part of a uniform, whereas some choose to wear them as everyday clothing attire. Neckties are traditionally worn with the top button fastened. Among younger men, neckties are worn as a casual item, tied loosely around the neck. For the history of the tie, see also Cravat, there is a long history of neckwear worn by soldiers, whether as part of a uniform or as a symbol of belonging to a particular group. Some form of other than the outdoor scarf can be traced intermittently through many centuries. Due to the difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name cravat. The boy-king Louis XIV began wearing a lace cravat about 1646, when he was seven and this new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe, both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks. From its introduction by the French king, men wore lace cravats, or jabots and these cravats were often tied in place by cravat strings, arranged neatly and tied in a bow. International Necktie Day is celebrated on October 18 in Croatia and in cities around the world, e. g. in Dublin, Tübingen, Como, Tokyo, Sydney. The Battle of Steenkerque took place in 1692, in this battle, the princes, while hurriedly dressing for battle, wound these cravats around their necks. They twisted the ends of the fabric together and passed the twisted ends through a jacket buttonhole and these cravats were generally referred to as Steinkirks. In 1715, another kind of neckwear, called stocks made its appearance, the term originally referred to a leather collar, laced at the back, worn by soldiers to promote holding the head high in a military bearing. The leather stock also afforded some protection to the blood vessels of the neck from saber or bayonet attacks. General Sherman is seen wearing a leather stock in several American Civil War-era photographs, stock ties were initially just a small piece of muslin folded into a narrow band wound a few times round the shirt collar and secured from behind with a pin. It was fashionable for the men to wear their hair long, the ends were tucked into a black silk bag worn at the nape of the neck
3.
Lau Islands
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The Lau Islands of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about sixty islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited, the Lau Group covers a land area of 188 square miles, and had a population of 10,683 at the most recent census in 2007. While most of the northern Lau Group are high islands of volcanic origin, administratively the islands belong to Lau Province. The British explorer James Cook reached Vatoa in 1774, by the time of the discovery of the Ono Group in 1820, the Lau archipelago was the most mapped area of Fiji. Political unity came late to the Lau Islands, historically, they comprised three territories, the Northern Lau Islands, the Southern Lau Islands, and the Moala Islands. Around 1855, the renegade Tongan prince Enele Maafu conquered the region, calling himself the Tui Lau, or King of Lau, he promulgated a constitution and encouraged the establishment of Christian missions. The first missionaries had arrived at Lakeba in 1830, but had been expelled, the Tui Nayau, who had been the nominal overlord of the Lau Islands, became subject to Maafu. The title Tui Lau was left vacant from his uncle, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, in 1958 as referenced in Mara, the Northern Lau Islands, which extended as far south as Tuvuca, were under the overlordship of Taveuni and paid tribute to the Tui Cakau. In 1855, however, Maafu gained sovereignty over Northern Lau, establishing Lomaloma, on Vanua Balavu, the Southern Lau Islands extended from Ono-i-Lau, in the far south, to as far north as Cicia. They were the chiefdom of the Tui Nayau, but with Maafus conquest in the 1850s. The Moala Islands had closer affiliation with Bau Island and Lomaiviti than with Lau and they have remained administratively a part of the Lau Province ever since. Since they lie between Melanesian Fiji and Polynesian Tonga, the Lau Islands are a point of the two cultural spheres. Lauan villages remain very traditional, and the inhabitants are renowned for their wood carving. Lakeba especially was a meeting place between Tongans and Fijians. The south-east trade winds allowed sailors to travel from Tonga to Fiji, the Lau Island culture became more Fijian rather than Polynesian beginning around 500 BC. However, Tongan influence can still be found in names, language, food, unlike the square-shaped ends characterizing most houses elsewhere in Fiji, Lauan houses tend to be rounded, following the Tongan practice. In early July 2014, Tongas Lands Minister, Lord Maʻafu Tukuiʻaulahi, at the time that news of the proposal first broke, it had not yet been discussed with the Lau Provincial Council. Many Lauans have Tongan ancestors and some Tongans have Lauan ancestors, Tongas Lands Minister is named after Enele Maafu, historically, the Minerva Reefs have been part of the fishing grounds belonging to the people of Ono-i-Lau, an island in the Lau Group
4.
Polynesia
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Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including the language family, culture, and beliefs. Historically, they were experienced sailors who used stars to navigate at night, the term Polynesia was first used in 1756 by French writer Charles de Brosses, and originally applied to all the islands of the Pacific. In 1831, Jules Dumont dUrville proposed a restriction on its use during a lecture to the Geographical Society of Paris, historically, these islands have also been referred to as the South Sea Islands. Polynesia is characterized by an amount of land spread over a very large portion of the mid. Most Polynesian islands and archipelagos, including the Hawaiian Islands and Samoa, are composed of volcanic islands built by hotspots, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and Ouvéa, the Polynesian outlier near New Caledonia, are the unsubmerged portions of the largely sunken continent of Zealandia. At first, the Pacific plate was subducted under the Australian plate, the Alpine Fault that traverses the South Island is currently a transform fault while the convergent plate boundary from the North Island northwards is called the Kermadec-Tonga Subduction Zone. The volcanism associated with subduction zone is the origin of the Kermadec. Out of approximately 300,000 or 310,000 square kilometres of land, over 270,000 km2 are within New Zealand, the Zealandia continent has approximately 3,600,000 km2 of continental shelf. The oldest rocks in the region are found in New Zealand and are believed to be about 510 million years old, the oldest Polynesian rocks outside of Zealandia are to be found in the Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain, and are 80 million years old. Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle, geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island. The other main island groups located within the Polynesian Triangle are Samoa, Tonga, there are also small Polynesian settlements in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, and in Vanuatu. An island group with strong Polynesian cultural traits outside of this triangle is Rotuma. The people of Rotuma have many common Polynesian traits but speak a non-Polynesian language, some of the Lau Islands to the southeast of Fiji have strong historic and cultural links with Tonga. However, in essence, Polynesia is a term referring to one of the three parts of Oceania. Some islands of Polynesian origin are outside the triangle that geographically defines the region. The Phoenix Islands and Line Islands, most of which are part of Kiribati, are geographically Polynesian islands, tracing Polynesian languages places their prehistoric origins in the Malay Archipelago, and ultimately, in Taiwan. Between about 3000 and 1000 BC speakers of Austronesian languages began spreading from Taiwan into Island Southeast Asia, there are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia
5.
Kiekie (clothing)
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A kiekie is a Tongan dress, an ornamental girdle around the waist, mainly worn by women on semiformal occasions, but nowadays also sometimes by men. At highly formal occasions both gender will settle for a taʻovala, the characteristic of a kiekie is that it is between a mat and a grass skirt, it is a string skirt attached to a waistband. It is supposed to be transparent, showing the skirt or tupenu worn under it. The strings can be short as a skirt, or down to the ankles. Related to the kiekie is the sisi, where the strings are sī leaves or plaited maile leaves, sisi are worn by both gender during dance performances. Kiekie are part of the koloa, the goods made by the women. Every woman can do it, although nowadays we see that some women specialise in it, kiekie can be made from many different materials, both natural and introduced, strips of pandanus leaves, often painted in bright colours. Either hanging loose, or plaited together, the salusalu is a long kiekie, especially for Haʻapai. Strips of hibiscus bast fiber, called fau, same as the pandanus leaves, but not as course and therefore suited for finer designs. Kaka, de fibrous tissue which is wrapped around the growing fronds of palm trees and it is usually varnished to make it stronger and then cut in all type of shapes. Strings or ropes little disks made from shell and strung together along their diameter. New Zealand flax, a Māori piupiu, helu, Critical essays, Cultural perspectives from the Southseas,1999
6.
Coir
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Coir, or coconut fibre, is a natural fibre extracted from the husk of coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes and mattresses. Coir is the material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut. Other uses of brown coir are in upholstery padding, sacking, white coir, harvested from unripe coconuts, is used for making finer brushes, string, rope and fishing nets. The English word coir comes from the Malayalam and Tamil word kayar, ropes and cordage have been made from coconut fibre since ancient times. Indian navigators who sailed the seas to Malaya, Java, China, arab writers of the 11th century AD referred to the extensive use of coir for ship ropes and rigging. A coir industry in the UK was recorded before the half of the 19th century. Coir fibres are found between the hard, internal shell and the coat of a coconut. The individual fibre cells are narrow and hollow, with walls made of cellulose. They are pale when immature, but later become hardened and yellowed as a layer of lignin is deposited on their walls, each cell is about 1 mm long and 10 to 20 µm in diameter. Fibres are typically 10 to 30 centimetres long, the two varieties of coir are brown and white. Brown coir harvested from fully ripened coconuts is thick, strong and has high abrasion resistance and it is typically used in mats, brushes and sacking. Mature brown coir fibres contain more lignin and less cellulose than fibres such as flax and cotton, so are stronger, white coir fibres harvested from coconuts before they are ripe are white or light brown in color and are smoother and finer, but also weaker. They are generally spun to make yarn used in mats or rope, the coir fibre is relatively waterproof, and is one of the few natural fibres resistant to damage by saltwater. Fresh water is used to process brown coir, while seawater and it must not be confused with coir pith, or formerly cocopeat, which is the powdery material resulting from the processing of the coir fibre. Coir fibre is locally named coprah in some countries, adding to the confusion, green coconuts, harvested after about six to 12 months on the palm, contain pliable white fibres. Brown fibre is obtained by harvesting fully mature coconuts when the nutritious layer surrounding the seed is ready to be processed into copra, the fibrous layer of the fruit is then separated from the hard shell by driving the fruit down onto a spike to split it. A well-seasoned husker can manually separate 2,000 coconuts per day, machines are now available which crush the whole fruit to give the loose fibres. These machines can process up to 2,000 coconuts per hour, the fibrous husks are soaked in pits or in nets in a slow-moving body of water to swell and soften the fibres
7.
Tongan funerals
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The influence of Christianity on Anga Faka Tonga is seen in the black clothing worn by mourners during the mourning period. The period of mourning, and thus the obligation to wear black, for an acquaintance it may be a few days, for a distant relation it may be a few weeks whilst for close relatives the mourning period may last for up to a year. This is irrespective whether a taʻovala is worn or not, for those in uniform a black armband is allowed instead. Appearing in public during this period a taʻovala is much recommended, and for sure when attending the funeral itself, it is obligatory. What kind of mat is worn depends on the relationship to the deceased, close relatives who are inferior, in kinship terms, or brothers side, wear old, coarse, torn mats, sometimes even old floor mats. These are the relatives who do the hard, dirty work of preparing the ʻumu at the funeral, relatives on the sisters side wear fine mats, often family heirloom mats. Those who are not related at all should wear fine mats that are fakaʻahu, over the course mats loose strips of pandanus may be worn, as whether it is a kiekie. This is the fakaaveave, and also a sign of respect, in the later days of the mourning period the fakaaveave can be worn alone without the bulky taʻovala. In the case of the death of a king, everybody is inferior of course, some are very huge ones for close relatives. As soon as the death has occurred all family members will be notified, nowadays often by a message and they are supposed to come to the putu. For friends or distantly related members it is enough that they come, pay their respect to the dead, bring a gift for the widow, have their share of food. The household of the deceased is supposed to provide a meal, or meals if it takes long, in case of a large family this is a huge and expensive operation with big ʻumu, and tons of food. Closer family will bring huge ngatu and other gifts, and are supposed to stay for the ʻapō. Usually a big tent is erected in the garden, and there the people sit the whole night singing religious songs, one night, but in case of a high chief the ʻapō can last a whole week. The burial itself starts with a service, the number of reverends/priests. After that all parade to that cemetery where the family has a piece of ground, a brass-band may lead the procession. If it is a high ranking civil servant, it will be the police brass-band, meanwhile, men and boys of the family have dug a grave, and the coffin is lowered in there. Nowadays the grave is usually sealed with concrete, after that all leave, although the closest relatives may stay at the grave for the next 10 days
