tongan

Tongan handicrafts

Mat Weaving - The mats are hand woven from strips of pandanus leaves. They are using the mats for special occasions such as births, deaths, and weddings. Woven mats are commonly  used for bedding and flooring and they are often passed down from generation to generation. In death, Tongans are wrapped in mats as a sign of respect and they are also dressed in black.

Tongan Foods

Food in daily life - our Tongan foods are root crops. They are cassava, kumara, taro , yam, giant taros etc . All root crops are cooked by boiling water or by underground oven (a Umu) and is usually sauced with Coconut cream.  Tonga also have their own leaf foods which are taro leaves (lu) and Tongan spinach (Pele). Tongan meats are free range chicken (Moa Tonga), Free range pigs (puaka) and Pacific pigeon. Tongan food is made up of foods from the land and the sea and they are also hunters and gatherers of land and sea.

Tongan dance

Our tongan dances are stories sung by singers and acted out by the dancers.  The words are represented by the movements of the hands and feet. A punake is a combination poet, composer and a choreographer, who writes the songs then trains and leads the performers.

Standing girls perform the ula. Unlike these, the kalao or wardance, was has no  accompanying song . The stamping feet, shouts of the leader, and rhythm of the drums combine to make this dance popular amongst visitors.