The Future of Tongan Cultural Heritage in Our Hands: Historic Sites Under Threat Featured
Dr. Heather Young-Leslie, Alberta University
Editor’s Note: Many of our heritage sites of extreme cultural and historical significance are under immense threat of losing forever. The loss of our heritage sites means the loss our cultural and historical identity. Therefore the onus of preserving, conserving and safeguarding them is collectively on our shoulders. There is then a requirement that we adopt a total rather than a partial approach to our cultural and historical sites. By a total approach, reference is made to a serious consideration of their cultural, historical, artistic and social significance rather than their destruction in the name of progress and development. If we are to preserve this cultural site we will definitely reap their social, cultural, historical and economic value, all of which are of total benefits to the whole of Tonga.
The letter below is from one of the seriously concerned academics conducting research in Tonga Dr. Heather Young Leslie of Alberta University, Canada.
Colleagues,
I write to beg your attention to a situation occuring in Tonga. Please read to the end, even if you are not a Polynesianist.
There exists on Tongatapu, on tidal reef flats to the east of Nuku'alofa, an archaeological site of great significance to Tongan cultural history, and Pacific archaeology. The site, a series of constructed mounds and interconnected causeways known as Va'epopua Sia Heu Lupe, was first documented by Cook on his 1777 visit, mapped originally by McKern in 1920 as part of the Bishop Museum’s Bayard Dominik Expedition, and then again in the 1980s by Spennemann. David Burley estimates that the mounds were built about 1350 AD and were actively used until 1650 AD.
In a letter recently sent to the Nobles' representative to Parliament, David characterizes them as "unique to Tonga", and as "one of Tonga’s most interesting complex of ancient heritage monuments". Anthropologist Wendy Pond's research ties Va'epopua Sia Heu Lupe to seasonal ceremonies that were likely as important as the better-known (because witnessed by Cook) Inasi ceremonies at Lapaha. The mounds are in an area called Popua which, due to it's proximity to Nuku'alofa and the increase of in-migration from other parts of Tonga, has been coming under pressure for land reclamation and expanded urbanization. Wendy wrote the Tongan government about the risk to Va'epopua Sia Heu Lupe in 2011, with no effect.
Recently, the area has been surveyed,with the intention of distributing household plots. The survey fails to recognize the existance of the mounds, and it is obvious that unless the Tongan government adjusts the plans, the entire site will be jeapardized. The mounds and their several ramps are constructed of several tons of large reef stone blocks and in-filled with coral. They will very likely be 'recycled' by home-builders unless they are protected. Sadly, while housing *is* sorely needed for the many in-migrants living in Nuku'alofa, 'reclaimed land' on Popua's tidal flats is not the answer - in addition to destroying an archaeological treasure, the site is already risky, and with rising sea levels and more severe weather patterns, anyone trying to live there will likely be swamped more often than not.
The urgency of the situation derives from the fact that a small window opens within which we may gain the attention of the Parliament, who are meeting on Monday August 10 (Sunday in North America). There is mobilization on this issue happening in Tonga. The Tongan Research Association, Dr. 'Ana Koloto, Director of USP in Tonga, Dr Seuula Johansson Fua who was funded by SPC for the cultural mapping project which informed the National Cultural Policy for Tonga, and local businesses are contacting various governmental personnel.
They are requesting international support. Wendy Pond is in Tonga, and is willing to carry messages to the Parliamentarians, if she can receive them by Friday. With time so short, and recognizing that not everyone who is willing has the ability to write to Parliament, an online petition has also been established.
My requests to you are as follows:
1] Please sign the petition. Mention your professional association in your comments: https://www.change.org/p/prime-minister-akilisi-pohiva-and-members-of-parliament-kingdom-of-tonga-preserve-tonga-s-cultural-heritage-site-at-popua-va-epopua-sia-heu-lupe?just_created=true
2] If you have time to write to Parliament, please do so. You may email your letter to Wendy Pond: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and copy it to the Director at Culture Division of Ministry of Internal Affairs Pulupaki Ika: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and they will pass it on to the Parliamentarians. The addressees can be: Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva, and/or Hon. Lord Ma'afu, Minister of Lands; Parliament House, Government of Tonga, Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu.
3] Please forward this email ASAP to your networks. We would like at the very least that ESfO, AAA and CASCA members, as well as archaeologists internationally, have the opportunity to sign the petition and write letters. We are advised that having prominent scholars's signatures, and international attention, will be helpful.
Malo 'aupito 'aupito
