Report: Help needed for overseas Tongans, schooled in kingdom

Transcript

A report on overseas born Tongans attending school in the kingdom suggests a more structured programme be introduced to avoid instances of bullying, violence and discomfort.

The report was submitted to parliament by La Trobe University's Helen Lee.

Professor Lee says she originally began the research to look at how misbehaving youth were sent back to school in Tonga and often struggled, sometimes being subjected to and reacting with violent behaviour.

However Professor Lee says kids were also sent back to learn their culture and get to know family.

She told Koro Vaka'uta despite frequent encounters with violence, from other students or through physical punishment, most students benefited from the experience.

WEB:  The project was funded by the Australian Research Council and approved by the Ministry of Education in Tonga.  Professor Lee was given local assistance from Ebonie Fifita and Rebecca Tauali'I who worked with the students in the schools and Hainome Fulivai who conducted some interviews along with Meliame Fifita.

HELEN LEE:  Even the young people who had some quite challenging experiences actually, in the long run, really benefited.  Particularly around their sense of identity and belonging.  Learning the language, getting to know their family, feeling more attached to Tonga as a country.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  Where there benefits, on the flipside, for local Tongans?

HL:  I'm not sure about that because I think for some of the family they stay with, it can be quite difficult to these young people, partly financially, but also because they do have special requirements because it is a real culture shock for them.  But I think it is also helping to maintain those transnational ties, for example grandparents who have young people coming to stay with them, get a chance to bond with them and get to know them.

KV:  How would you describe the relationship between overseas born Tongans and local born Tongans?

HL:  Highly ambivalent.  There is a lot of misconceptions about the young people coming in from overseas.  There is a widespread assumption that they are going to bring trouble with them.  The expression that is often used is dangerous influences whereas the vast majority of them are not doing that at all but I think the problem is that they often get categorised with people that are known as deportees who have been involved in some kind of visa problem or criminal activity overseas so the assumption is that they are going to introduce criminal behaviour and other bad influences as well.

KV:  Is it a bit of a fear of western influence too?

HL:  I think that is very evident because the young people who go back tend to be called palangi or palangi loi or fie palangi, various versions of 'you are trying to be European'.  That can go for years.  There were a couple of girls who had been there, one of them eight years I think, and she was still being called palangi by her classmates so it is something very hard for them to shake off. Any of their kind of western ways that they picked up overseas tended to be mocked.

KV:  Did you see that at the end of their experience that they were more culturally educated and informed?

HL:  If they immersed themselves in Tongan culture, often more than a year.  Once they've learned the language it makes a huge difference for them and it is really hard for them to be fluent in Tongan growing up overseas.  Going to Tonga and having the opportunity to become fluent in Tongan is a huge thing for these young people because of course language unlocks a whole lot of knowledge about culture and then they become much more comfortable.  The other idea they discussed was the idea of respect which is really, really important in Tonga and a lot of them hadn't really understood growing up overseas.  Particularly gender ideas around respect, brother / sister relationships, those sort of things and they were really proud that they had learnt the appropriate behaviours.