Abstract:
This thesis examines how Tongans in New Zealand define ‘home’. It explores different meanings of home by Tongans, and how they create and recreate connections to home. It looks at how the concept of home can be a physical place like a house, or an imaginary space like ones’ memory. The thesis is shaped and driven by three main research questions: 1) Where is home and what does it look like? 2) Is Tonga a place of belonging, a space of longing or both? 3) Why do I feel like I do not belong, in the place where I grew up?