December is a month of remembering the Mercy of God, socialising and a time for kāinga to love one another, said Tongan Community leader Sione Tu’itahi.
He said this was a time to reminisce about what we did throughout the year and what we had planned ahead.
“What was accomplished and what was not,” he wrote in Tongan.
Tu’itahi said a good kāinga (relatives) was the foundation of a good town and nation.
If the foundation was strong the fale (house) could withstand any strong winds, he said.
Tu’itahi, a former Tongan journalist, lecturer at Massey University and now director of the Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand and Secretary of the Aotearoa New Zealand Tongan Church-Faith Leadership Network in Auckland, New Zealand said this in his second monthly Tongan language column for Kaniva News.
In his first article last month, Tu’itahi wrote about the Mate Ma’a Tonga’s participation in the Rugby League World Cup tournament 2017.
In that article he wrote the Mate Ma’a Tonga players had rekindled the kind of courage, respect and peace Tongans have whenever they were defeated in sports.
This week Tu’itahi said he believed the kāinga was the beginning of Tongans’ country exploration, nation building, nation keeping and nation designing.
He believed the kāinga was where the first church, first classroom and the first clinic had been built. The first church leader and teacher as well as first doctor for the children were the parents who were the key features of the kāinga.
He said he had seen the positive outcomes of these in the many years he had been involved in international academic research and work in Tonga.
He said many of the Tongans who were working diligently for the benefits of the country in areas such as religion, education and government were those who had been taught to know of what a good kāinga was.
Tu’itahi said no kāinga was perfect, but kāingas who were prudent, worked hard to achieve certain goals and were patience when there were difficulties, would succeed and with that success would continue to benefit their next generations in contributing to building the nation.
Tu’itahi said if Tongan nation builders and keepers continued to look after those successful Tongans or even foreigners who came from overseas countries to help Tonga, this would confirm an expansion of Tonga to become part of those countries.
These good Tongans from overseas would continue to represent Tonga in sport, faiva, trades, religions and education.
Tu’itahi said big countries like Israel, China and India invited their successful people who had been staying in overseas countries to return or just stay in their foreign countries and contribute to building their homeland.
