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Abstract
Although studies have shown that Tongan migrants maintain strong linkages with Tongans in Tonga as well as with their kin in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, the Tongan concept of va, social space, has not been used to understand Tongan transnational relations. For Tongans, va is organized through one's genealogy and kinship ties. The concept of space is central to our understanding of transnationality because global practices involve the movement and flows of people and things within space and across spatial boundaries while people maintain sociospatial connections with one another. Tongans generally view reciprocal exchanges, whether within Tonga or transnational, as tauhi va: taking care of sociospatial ties with kin and kin-like members. In this article, I explore the concept of va and the practice of tauhi va primarily through my research among Tongans in Maui, Hawai'i, as well as my experience with Tongans in Seattle, Washington. I argue that va and tauhi va provide us with new spatial concepts for framing our understanding of Tongan transnationality.
KEYWORDS: Social space, va, transnationalism, tauhi va, Tongan Americans, genealogy, fonua
RETURNING TO HAWAI'I
When I arrived on the island of Maui in the summer of 2002,1 felt a sense of reverence toward this Hawaiian island. Deep inside my spirit, I knew that I was returning to a sacred place. As I felt the sacredness of the island of Maui, my mind began to ponder the similarities between 'aina (the Hawaiian term for land),2 and kainga (the Tongan term for relatives/kin). Both terms are based on 'ai/kai, (to feed, to nourish).3 Moreover, 'aina and kainga convey the central idea that people are fed, both physically and spiritually, by two important sources of nourishment: their land and their kin. As I reflected on this connection, I began to understand my feeling of reverence toward this island. Maui is one of the 'aina that fed and nourished many of my ancestral kainga during their ancient long-distance voyages in the moana, the open sea.
It was a moving experience for me, as a Tongan with genealogical ties to Koloa (one of my ancestor Maui's home islands in Tonga), to stand on the island of Maui-another home island of my ancestor Maui. Ever since I was a young...