Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 47). Also available via the World Wide Web.

People of Pacific Island descent are afflicted by obesity and diabetes more than other populations. Although interventions have succeeded in reducing these conditions among other groups, they have been unsuccessful among Tongans and other Pacific Islanders. Furthermore, little is known about the cultural perspectives of this population with a high rate of obesity and diabetes. Accordingly, this descriptive phenomenological study was conducted to investigate the lived experiences of Tongans with obesity and diabetes in a western metropolitan area of the United States to understand their predisposition toward these conditions and suggest appropriate interventions. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 11 Tongans, 18 years or older, with obesity and diabetes. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using open-ended questions. Data analysis consisted of verbatim transcription and splitter coding, which identified 5 emerging themes. The findings indicated that cultural customs have created an emotional attachment among Tongan participants to their native foods and that they feel obliged to eat abundantly at food-related social events. Moreover, they mistrust their healthcare professionals, which results in non-adherence to medical advice. The findings align with Martha Rogers' theory of the science of unitary human beings and Bandura's model of reciprocal determinism that there is a strong relationship between people and their cultural environment. This study's findings provide an understanding that may lead to positive social change in designing culturally specific preventive programs to decrease obesity and diabetes and ensure a better quality of life for Tongans.

The employment experiences of Tongan women migrants have received little attention in the literature. This study therefore, sought to shed light on the dynamics of their social and economic experiences at paid work in New Zealand. It was guided by the theories of population geographies, feminist geography and postcolonialism. The inter-relationships of these theories provided insights into the influence of migration on these women's identities, ethnicity and gender relations and also how these influence these women's experiences at paid work in New Zealand. The data were drawn from two major sources: i) the New Zealand 2006 population census and ii) in-depth interviews held in Tonga and New Zealand, with greater focus on the interviews. This study revealed that the Tongan women's decisions for migrating to New Zealand were influenced by social rather than economic incentives. Migration has challenged these women's traditional roles and reconstructed their gender relations. Many are breadwinners yet Tongan born men in New Zealand still predominantly engage in the labour force and have higher personal income. Their experiences at paid work also differ from the New Zealand born Tongan women in New Zealand. These differences reflect the availability of their social networks and their familiarity with the socio-economic systems in New Zealand. They experienced successes and failures at paid work on their way to improving their lives in New Zealand.

National accounting and national accounts concepts have very strong links to business accounting and business accounts concepts, and economic theory. The current trend in national accounting work is to carry out the task based on a framework which functions as an integrated general purpose statistical information system. The principal constraints to this approach are data availability which is a function of the standard and serviceability of the country's national statistical system, and general conventional accounting principles. It is submitted that one of the important properties that a system of national accounts should possess is inherent flexibility in order to allow such a system to respond sensitively to developments in economic theory and specialized needs/demands. Even though the development of certain national accounting principles can be traced back to the seventeenth century, national accounting generally is a twentieth century invention, with the development of the SNA as a very major breakthrough. One of the SNA's most valuable contributions is its provision of a consistent and comprehensive framework in terms of national accounting concepts, definitions and principles. The application of the conventional national accounting principles to Tonga and other developing countries has been confronted with many conceptual and statistical problems. The existence of imperfect national price systems in developing countries has led many critics to question the validity of national income estimates for such countries. It has been submitted that such imperfection of national price systems has been essentially a function of constraints on commodity and factor movements. It is argued however that many such restrictions cannot be applied with significant force to the case of Tonga and that there exists great validity and usefulness in making national income estimation. Non-market portion of total production in the economy of Tonga is significant. Its estimation for national accounting purposes is faced with the conceptual problems of setting appropriate boundary of production and imputation. The recommendations of the SNA with regard to the former are endorsed for national accounting practice in Tonga with special attention to transactions such as the unilateral provisions of free and/or partially paid services by Tongans to government and church authorities. Due to the predominantly agricultural character of the Tongan economy and the existence of a partial subsistence sector, certain conceptual problems arising from the need to make clear distinctions between production and consumption, and saving and investment in accordance with the Keynesian framework are bound to prevail with regard to national accounting in the Kingdom. There are also the problems associated with any attempt to distinguish the various factor shares of national income. Recommendations and comments concerning possible means of minimizing these problems or perhaps putting such, problems into some balanced perspective, are presented. Statistical problems faced with national accounting work in Tonga are generally associated with the inadequacy and unreliability of basic national accounting statistics, and the shortage of appropriate material and human resources. While most of the statistical problems can be substantially alleviated by more liberal direction of resources to the process of data collection and national income estimation, some of the statistical problems like the conceptual problems would persist in Tonga as long as the general standard of the Kingdom's national statistical system is low and the general state of under-development prevails. A close scrutiny of the general performance and structure of the Tongan economy, current and anticipated future needs/demands for various national accounting statistical series, and current and anticipated future status of data availability, suggests that a system of national accounts for Tonga which could bring out the important economic characteristics and inter-relationships of important sectors in the economy would be considered as very desirable. With the increasing complexity of the Kingdom's economy and associated increasing diversity of needs/demands for appropriate statistical series, it is felt that a system of national accounts which offers greater disaggregation of important aggregates and which views the production sector at some component levels such as "Agricultural", "Non-Agricultural, Non-Financial" and "Financial" production sub-sectors even though it is a diversion from the general recommendations of the SNA, would merit a high level of serviceability. A system of national accounts which is essentially based on a system of sector accounts with the incorporation of the above stated partitioning of the production sector is therefore proposed for Tonga. The proposed system also consists of sets of supplementary tables and aggregative accounts which aim at providing essential supplementary information via the adoption of different classification systems or appropriate aggregations of information exhibited in the sector accounts. Issues concerning suggested future expansion of the proposed system to include appropriate input-output matrices and flow of funds tables and the need for a proper development and application of an appropriate social accounting matrix (SAM) for Tonga are also discussed. The proposed system of national accounts for Tonga is relatively comprehensive and possesses inherent flexibility which is a reflection of its primary inheritance from the SNA. Even though it might take some time before the proposed design can be implemented in full, its relative comprehensiveness would automatically serve a lot of useful purposes e.g. its explicit facilitation of attention to gaps in the existing data series. The implementation of the proposed system is regarded as a feasible long term project for the Tonga national statistical agency. The extent to which it can be implemented in the very near future given Government's acceptance, would depend heavily on the priority level the Tonga Government attaches or would attach to the task of developing and improving the Kingdom's national accounting system.

Tongan migrants migrated to New Zealand with specific purposes in mind. One purpose is for Tongan children to gain the benefits of good education that New Zealand has to offer. However, there is a growing concern for Tongan parents and New Zealand teachers and schools about the quality and impact of education Tongan children receive. The study is titled, “Talanoa: A contribution to the teaching and learning of Tongan Primary School children in New Zealand” centres on Tongan parents who are recent migrants from Tonga and have primary school children. The research focuses on alternative approach in teaching and learning pedagogies of Tongan children in New Zealand. The research approach is drawn from Tongan language and cultural practices called talanoa, a communal act of social, political and critical dialogue for a purpose. The methodology is qualitative in design, drawing extensively from Tongan language and culture to research the koloa (values) of talanoa that Tongan parents practise at home. The method of data collection employed is talanoa (critical dialogue) conducted in groups with Tongan parents to capture their perceptions, views and experiences of talanoa in their various homes. In examining this unique context, data is analysed using the Tongan concept koloa. The values of talanoa when explored from the participant’s perspective are more clearly understood. The findings of the study indicate that Tongan migrants’ home practice of talanoa offers a teaching and learning pedagogy which is valued as a best approach in teaching their children. The findings further indicate that talanoa can be extended beyond the homes and into many classroom environments.

Exegesis (MA--Art and Design) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2005. / Also held in print (59 leaves, col.ill., 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection (T 746 BHA)

Thesis (PhD--Anthropology)--University of Washington, 2008. / Title from PDF cover page (viewed on 4 February 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-236).

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Tongan bisyllabic word lists for use in measurement of word recognition testing. Commonly used bisyllabic words were digitally recorded by male and female native talkers of Tongan. The psychometric performance of the words was measured at ten intensity levels (- 5 to 40 dB HL) in 5 dB increments by 20 listeners with normal hearing acuity. The 200 words with the highest rate of listener identification were included in four relatively psychometrically equivalent word lists of 50 words each and eight half-lists of 25 words each. Using logistic regression, the mean psychometric slope across the created word lists at 50% intelligibility was found to be 6.3%/dB for materials created from the male talker recordings and 6.2%/dB for the female talker recordings. To increase auditory homogeneity of the word recognition lists, the intensity of words in each list was digitally adjusted so that the threshold of each list was equal to the midpoint between the mean thresholds of the male and female half-lists. Digital recordings of the psychometrically equivalent word recognition lists are available on compact disc.

This study is concerned with representation. It considers the nature of a culturally located narrative form called talanoa and its creative translation into film. The film Talanoa: Matala ‘o e Fonua that constitutes the designed outcome of this project considers the memories of three Tongan women who left their homeland to settle in New Zealand between 1970’s and 1990’s. It is designed as three related garlands that exist as a related unit. Talanoa: Matala ‘o e Fonua is therefore, a creative synthesis of their talanoa, into a new form of documentary that is designed to capture the cultural and emotional resonance of their stories. The work orchestrates photography, animation, sound design, filmed footage and extensive postproduction research into a unique text that seeks to move the parameters of documentary beyond the visual interview. In doing so, the research draws heavily on Tongan paradigms of narrative and representation.

This study explores Tongan social work practice and examines how social and community work is constructed from a Tongan worldview. Tongan social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand participated in individual interviews and focus group meetings which explored the Tongan values, knowledge, skills and processes foundational to their practice. The participants' narratives contribute to an understanding of Tongan conceptions of wellbeing, personal and social change and to an identification of key components of a Tongan theoretical framework for social and community work practice. This exploratory study contributes to the growing literature articulating indigenous and non-western frameworks for social and community work practice. Seeking to draw on a Tongan interpretive framework, the thesis employs metaphors, in particular two fishing practices (pola and uku), to draw the findings together. Pola, a community fishing practice, illustrates a Tongan social welfare system comprised of core values, namely: fetokoni'aki (mutual helpfulness), tauhi vā (looking after relationships), faka'apa'apa (respect) and 'ofa (love). Maintaining this Tongan system in the diaspora is central to the purpose of Tongan social and community work and the values themselves are a basis for practice. Other key concepts are shown to define a Tongan practice framework and these are identified as: fakafekau'aki (connecting), a'u tonu (going in person), lotu (spirituality/prayer/religion), fakatōkilalo (humility), fie'aonga (wanting to be useful), matakāinga (behaving like family) and 'osikiavelenga (doing utmost). The uku metaphor draws parallels to specialised practices of fishing or diving under the reef, around pupu'a puhi (blowholes). Similarly, Tongan social and community work involves specific processes which draw on a constellation of skills and values. Fakatoukatea (skills in opposite directions) is important for bridging Tongan and pālangi contexts, for working across various fields of practice and for adopting family-like roles as a social worker. Lea fakatonga (Tongan language), hua (humour)and feongo'i'aki (intuitive use of feelings) are important aspects of a Tongan social work approach. Tongan social and community work is located primarily within kāinga (extended family) and community. This location of social work reconstructs conventional conceptions of professionalism and relationships become a key force for change within a Tongan framework. A balance between a directive and empowerment approach needs to be achieved and an advocacy emphasis is required given the position of Tongans in the diaspora. This thesis demonstrates that a framework for social and community work derived from a Tongan worldview: provides new discourses and thinking within the critical postmodern tradition; is negotiated alongside other discourses thus creating spaces of possibility; is characterised by layers of ethnic specific, indigenous and humanity level differences and commonalities; emphasises the moral-artistic nature of social and community work; and challenges social work to be more diverse in terms of practice competencies, supervision, cross-cultural practice, education and community development. The thesis argues that if social and community work is to be transformative, it must itself be transformed and its very foundations reshaped by Tongan and other indigenous, non-western voices.