Re-scripting life: The experiences of New Zealand-born Tongan "youth at-risk" sent to Tonga

Abstract

New Zealand-born Tongan youths engaging in "at-risk" behaviour is an increasing concern for the Tongan community in New Zealand. One response is an initiative by the families of these youths; sending their children to live with relatives in Tonga for periods of time. An underlying assumption of the families is that these secondgeneration youths need to find their Tongan identity by understanding the migration story of their parents‟ generation and assimilating anga fakatonga (Tongan ways of behaving), and this will occur when they are immersed in the Tongan lifestyle in Tonga. This is an example of a counter-hegemonic process, whereby the families are choosing to facilitate a more preferable future for their children, by inverting the migration process. It provides a further example of the failure of modernisation to recognise cultural values as being of intrinsic worth to the development process. Narrative methodology has been utilized in this research study to collect, understand, and present the experiences of the youths when they were in Tonga, and for those youths who returned to New Zealand. The study is premised on the belief that certain macro-narratives in society largely influence the construction of personal narratives of individuals. In this research study the New Zealand-born Tongan youths were mainly influenced by the "youth at-risk" narrative, prevalent in Western society, which contravenes the Tongan cultural narrative. This research study reveals that the New Zealand-born Tongan “youth at-risk” initially faced challenges acculturating into anga fakatonga in Tonga; however the families there received the youths with much 'ofa (kindness). The youths had valuable learning experiences in Tonga in the formal, non-formal and informal settings, and abstained from many of the "at-risk" behaviours they demonstrated in New Zealand. This was due to their successful re-scripting into anga fakatonga, which resulted in repositioning the youths' families in Tonga as the nexus of their identity, educational involvement and relationships. However for those youths who returned to New Zealand the continuance of their re-scripted cultural narrative has been less successful. A solution this thesis posits is that an alternative macro-narrative needs to be fostered in New Zealand, whereby New Zealand-born Tongan youths are able to retain a strong sense of their Tongan identity while living in New Zealand and achieve their aims in life, particularly in terms employment, lifestyle and educational opportunities.