New journey begins for Malia 'o Lotolua 'Ulu'ave Ma'u [1]
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 20:03. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
By Linny Folau
A lonely journey ended, and a new one discovering her long lost family began for Malia 'o Lotolua 'Ulu'ave Ma'u, after visiting her father's grave at Takaunove Cemetery in Fasi, Nuku'alofa, this afternoon.
Malia received an overwhelming response from her father's family and his old friends both in Tonga, New Zealand and the United States within a few hours after the story of her search for her Tongan connections was posted on Matangi Tonga Online on October 22.
Visiting Nuku'alofa, the Tongan-born 22-year-old from New Zealand was getting ready to return home in early November disappointed, after two-months of searching without luck for any information regarding her father Visesio 'Ulu'ave. She had lost contact with her father after she migrated to New Zealand when she was four-years-old with her birth mother Fane Ma'u and a younger brother.
But then everything changed when Malia received many emails, messages and telephone calls from her father's family in New Zealand and his close friends in Tonga and from others, who recognized her father's photo. She learned more about her Tongan connections in a few hours than she had known in her whole life. Many of her close relatives live in Rotorua and Wellington, including one second cousin whom she discovered shares her love of writing poetry.
Malia received vital information from a relative in New Zealand who told her the location of the cemetery where her father Visesio was buried, which led her to find his graveside today.
"After years of being told stories that he had passed but not knowing whether that's true and now to confirm for myself and to be here in front of his grave, is just surreal. I am lost for words," she said. An inscription on the front of the grave with his name, recorded that he died in 1998 at the age of 81.
Malia said she was grateful that she was able to find his graveside and say goodbye to him before leaving Tonga. "I now can bring my younger brother to visit him in the future," she said.
She arrived in Tonga in August with only a few photographs of her father and his name written on a piece of paper, which was the only information her mother gave her, including that he had passed away.
"To have this right turn of events which led me to him, it just feels like all the puzzles in my head are now pieced together. It's an amazing and a sad feeling at the same time, to find him."
Malia said she was also grateful to all of her father's families and friends who had made contact with her and provided information that she had not known before.
One of those was a local businessman Steve Edwards who was happy to share with her stories of her father whom he got to know in New Zealand and became good friends with in Tonga.
"I am just grateful that it has turned out this way and just visiting my father's grave while finding out more about my Tongan family and identity is amazing. God is good," she said.
Malia has been invited to join a Tongan family reunion in Wellington later this year.