From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.

Two of Tonga’s well-known writers, Dr Sione ‘Amanaki Havea and Patricia Ledyard Matheson, died shortly before the arrival of the 21st century.

‘Amanaki died in October at the age of 78, after working for 61 years for the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, as an administrator, a teacher, a principal of the church colleges, and as a President of the church.

A tireless worker, ‘Amanaki was due to retire from the church administration in 1992 but, of course, this was not possible for a man who had so much to give. In 1993 he became one of three Tongan translators of the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament. The four gospels were published only a few days before died.

The legacies that ‘Amanaki has left behind are numerous, but his two literary works that will be with us for ever, are his translations of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Tonga, which was funded by the Tongan government and was carried out during the 1970s, and his involvement in the translation of the four gospels from Greek to Tongan.

He was buried at Telekava, Kolomotu‘a, on November 1.

Patricia Ledyard, lived at ‘Utulei, Vava‘u, for 51 years before her death at home on October 21 at the age of 87.

Her three books on Tonga, Friendly Island 1956, ‘Utulei, My Tongan Home 1974, and The Tongan Past 1982, (all having numerous reprints) bring to life the post-war island kingdom of two generations, with a flowing personal perspective of Tongan history and culture.

Pat was born in 1913 in San Francisco to British parents. During the second world war, as a first lieutenant with the US Women’s Army Corp, she was assigned as a public relations officer to Australia, New Guinea and the Philippines, where she became one of a few women volunteers to serve in the front lines.

Her books tell her story that after the war, while studying at the University of Otago, it was, “in some musty old books with cracked leather bindings that I first discovered these islands…I soon fell completely under the spell of Tonga…”

Pat found a job as principal of the Siulikutapu College, coming to live and work in Vava‘u in 1949. Within a few days of arriving she had met, and within weeks married, the love of her life, Dr Farquhar Matheson, a Scots doctor working at the Vava‘u hospital.

They raised two daughters, Tami and Tupou, in the rambling old house on the sandy point at the entrance to Vava‘u harbour, which she shared with the world through her books and her hospitality. With her ‘green fingers’ Pat turned the barren point into a shady, flowering garden, growing so vigorously that, eventually, her youngest grandchild thought his grandmother lived in a forest. As an occasional correspondent for Matangi Tonga and ‘Eva she shared her gardening pleasures.

Gratitude

Pat had a deep love of life and of her many friends, whether they were royalty or bishops, distinguished scholars or simply her own ‘Utulei village neighbours—from whom Pat said she learned, “that gratitude is the proper attitude toward life”. She wrote that she was thankful to Tongans for having made her feel at home in their islands.

Friends note that Pat became a legend, not only for her independent lifestyle, but also for her acidic sense of  humour, quick wit, well-informed conversation, voluminous correspondence, and for nurturing a superb academic library, as well as her own hybrid hibiscus, and orchids. As a writer, she gave wholesome credit where it was due, but remained, ever, a sharp critic.

Pat lived life to the full, a familiar hatted figure crossing the harbour in all kinds of weather, in her dinghy with shaky outboard. But in the end, after suffering a mild stroke, she seemed to have decided that entering an invalid stage of old age was not for her.  

Pat was buried with Farquhar high on the hill in the village cemetery, from where can be seen, “the wide sweep of the sea and the islands” that they loved.