From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 2, August 2002.

The Tongans tradition of presenting gifts to one another is a phenomena that has enabled Tongans to maintain a way of life that is unique in the world, said Dr Mike Evans, an Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Canada, who visited Ha‘ano island in June.

Mike in his book, Persistence of the Gift, Tongan Tradition in Transnational Context published last year, focused his study on Ha‘ano, Ha‘apai where he observed how the practice of presenting gifts to each other within a small community established a practice that persisted even after the people moved away from their community to live in other islands and eventually to other countries.

The practice of presenting gifts to each other extended beyond Tonga as annually a group of Tongan women who lived overseas returned to Tonga with gifts of modern home ware such as bed sheets, towels, and pots and pans, to exchange for mats, tapa and other cultural items with women from their home villages in Tonga.

Mike believed that foreign remittances sent by Tongans overseas to their families and relatives back home was deeply rooted in the tradition of presenting gifts to each other. “It is more meaningful and people will keep doing it to each other, ” he said.