Call to Preserve Tonga's Cultural Heritage Site at Popua (Va'epopua Sia heu lupe) Featured
Sketch of the Area By Earlier Explorers
6 August, 2015.
Editor's Note:
Academics from different parts of the world are calling the Tongan Government to save the Tonga Cultural Heritage Site at Popua where the Va'epopua Sia Heu Lupe is located. This cultural site is part of the Tongan Government settlement plan for the people of the area. Land are now distributed to settlers in the Patangata area where this extreme significant site is placed. This site was reserved by previous administrations due to it's cultural and historical significance despite the push from local dwellers who temporarily settled in the area.
The Popua mounds are an extremely significant cultural heritage site in Tonga that are under threat of development for housing. We, the undersigned, respectfully call for the Parliament and Ministers of Tonga to adhere to the Tonga National Cultural Policy and preserve this heritage site from housing development. (Read more here: http://matangitonga.to/2015/08/04/new-subdivision-death-sentence-heritage-site )
The Popua mounds and causeways were first documented in 1777 by Captain Cook but first mapped in 1920 by the archaeologist William McKern during the B.P. Bishop Museum’s Bayard Dominik Expedition. Sixty years later in the 1980s, Australian National University researcher Dr. Dirk Spennemann also mapped the mounds writing a brief report on this work. The Tongan Research Association has acknowledged the precariousness of the mounds relative to the reclamation project at a number of its meetings and these concerns were passed to government.
Similarly in 2011 Dr. Wendy Pond wrote to the Minister of Lands about the Popua reclamation project and the almost certain destruction of the archaeological complex as a consequence. Her recommendation to alter the reclamation plan to avoid these sites was not acted upon. Legend tells us this heritage site was the birthplace of 'Aho'eitu, the first Tu'i Tonga (King of Tonga).
Aside from this site being historically significant, the Popua mounds are further an inappropriate site for houses, as it is low lying and the people building houses there (mostly the poor landless families from the outer islands) will be severely affected by extreme weather events thus causing them to suffer even more. Building more houses in this area is a recipe for social, environmental and heritage disaster.
The first modern King of Tonga, George Tupou I, foresaw that there would come a day when his people would be “destroyed for lack of knowledge”. We, the undersigned, ask the Honorable Members of Parliament, do NOT let this prophetic statement come true. Safeguard and preserve the Popua Sia for future generations and find another site for housing developments.
Source: CHANGE. ORG.
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Vakai'i atu pe na'a tofi pe ka e fakahaohao e 'elia mahu'inga koena, pea kapau 'e nofo'i atu 'o ngaahi kinautolu e he fanga tevolo, pea fakaafe'i e fanga tevolo ke nau hau ki he faahinga ne nau fakapaasi