The myths of Foa Petroglyphs [1]
Friday, March 13, 2009 - 18:02. Updated on Friday, September 12, 2014 - 15:44.
Editor,
The discovery of Foa petroglyphs reminds us of the prolong regional inter- and intra-migration between the West and East of Oceania, and North and South, in a complex and pluralistic nature of opposite and reversible directions since the arrival of our Moanan ancestors from South-East Asia prior to the Birth of Christ (Vikings of the South Seas). Such Vikings were travelling back and forth between islands, even further to the South of the New World and islands like Tikopia to the North-West, at any time they wanted, for whatever purposes they might be, due to their familiarity in skills and wisdom with the know-how to adapt to nature and the sea in secure and safe strategies.
According to oral traditions and myths, our Moanan ancestors used to travel on the kalia (double canoe) in a speed that modern archaeologists will find it hard to believe if they spend a time to thoroughly study its details. Captain James Cook in his three voyages to Tonga, and other parts of Moana in the 18th Century, accounted that 'Ulukalala II (Fangupo), the Warrior (To'a), Chief ('Eiki) and Tu'i Ha'apai-Vava'u (King of Ha'apai-Vava'u) with his crew travelled from Vava'u to Ha'apai in a much faster speed than their British ship when considering its acquired high level of modern industrial technology at the time. Cook said that when they arrived at Ha'apai, 'Ulukalala and his men already landed there about an hour earlier.
If archaeologists won't study our oral traditions and myths seriously, with the scientific and philosophical lenses of openness to all related 'sources of fact' drawing from other disciplines in the field, they will continue in proposing 'vague opinions' regarding our remote past, be it material or non-material in nature. Apparently, I can still observe these tendencies of neglecting the sources of fact from our oral traditions and myths in the archaeological findings and publications of most if not all Moanan archaeologists.
How long they have been conducting archaeological studies and excavations in Tonga and Moana, and Still they are continuing to think whether to include sources of fact from oral traditions and myths in their publications. I have yet to witness in future publications on Foa petroglyphs, some logical sense of examining, and perhaps encompassing, in an independent way the sources of fact from our oral traditions and myths in their own logical rights.
Seminal scholars, such as the Italian Giovanni Battista Vico, Austrian Sigmund Freud, and the French Emile Durkheim have pioneered in embarking on the philosophic-scientific significance of studying myths and oral traditions, and how they can contribute to the finding of facts, and their truth and validity, in any given study. They have enlightened us with the scientific and philosophical views that myths and oral traditions can reflect the reality of life in terms of unveiling some aspects of the moral, social, political, religious and intellectual behaviours of people in the remote past. Such a kind of philosophic-scientific approach is observable too initially in the works of Futa, Mahina and their 'Atenisi folks, and then Hau'ofa and Ka'ili in the situation of Tongan-Moanan scholarship.
Archaeologists from Europe and the Middle East conducting research on the City of Troy have recently explored new information about its reality also as a consequence of examining the corpus of ancient Greek myths and oral traditions, especially among the works of Homer in Iliad and Odyssey for example.
Moanan archaeologists' explanations will be closer to the reality of the remote past, if other related facts from linguistics, history, myths and oral traditions from anthropology and prehistory, etc., are clearly and explicitly unfolded on the table for realistic analysis and free examination. It is hard to accept the validity of their claims when the wisdom and knowledge of our Moanan ancestors, which can be used as sources of fact, are being neglected for almost half a century, as shown on the publication of the article regarding the unscientific and unphilosophical claim of 'Nukuleka as the cradle of Polynesian'. It is a way of avoiding the complexity and pluralism of regional inter- and intra- migration in opposite and reversible directions throughout Oceania during the early stage of settlement. I am aware of the fact that Mahina had already addressed this issue very critically in your Letter to the Editors last year, and I am approaching along the same direction by calling for a revival in our study of the remote past of Moana.
In fact, our ancestors were 'sea-people' or 'people of Moana (Moanan clans), a word that can be found across the cultures and borders of many islanders' cultures - with the Western foreign labels of Melananesia, Polyneisa and Micronesia ... terms including 'Lapita' that have contributed nothing to the advance of knowledge in our 'struggle' through continuing inquiry and criticism to know more about the reality of our remote past. Such a process can only be directed and guided well with some thorough and free examinations of our oral traditions and myths in a critical mode of thinking, without imposing our personal interests upon matters of fact.
According to oral traditions and myths, our communication and migration with Hawaii and Tahiti can be traced back to the Era of the Mauis of Maama-Lolofonua (Tonga-'Uvea-Futuna, etc.), Tangaloas of Langi (Samoa-Hawaii and Tahiti) and Havea Hikule'o of Pulotu (Fiji) ... roughly around the Birth of Christ or earlier. I hope the Moanan archaeologists will at the end admit the laws of history by including views of Mokofisi on 'Ulukalala and Ka'ili on Lo'au in the upcoming publications of the Foa Petroglyphs. Oral traditions, myths, epics, songs and dances tell countless stories about the Pulotu Empire, Manu'a Empire and Tu'i Tonga Empire, a kind of information that is required to be taken into account for further critical examination.
Ka'ili (2008) in his PhD Thesis suggested that Tonga and Hawaii communicated and contacted each other since the period of the Maui lineages. We have the Ha'amonga-'a -Maui Motu'a Trilithon, Matalanga-'a-Maui and plant Tepilo-'a-Maui in Tonga whereas in Hawaii they have the island of Maui and Maui Mountains in Mauna Kahalawai, more Maui stories in Samoa, Wallis Islands, Tahiti, etc.
Following Ka'ili, the Lo'au Lineage (Ha'a Lo'au) in our myths, oral traditions, epics, songs and stories of the kava plant and the Royal Kava Ceremony are said to be new migrants arriving from the East in around the 1100 and 1200 AD. This was during the reigns of Tu'i Tonga Momo and his son Tu'i Tonga Tu'itatui, the periods in which the Foa petroglyphs with the images of men, women, dog, turtle, bird and footprints on rock pieces are considered to have been created and carved. Lo'au Lineage were real people who lived at the District of Ha'amea (central Tonatapu) at the Lake (Lepa) of Fualu at Ma'ananga Residence in which the Mata-ki-'Eua Villa of HM King George Tupou V is now situated.
We have a Tonga expression, 'Ko Vaihi e', which simply means, 'It's hard to accomplish', and it reminds us of our prolong communication and association with Vaihi, an ancient Moanan name for Hawaii.
Last but not least, I would like to point out that the validity and truth of facts of history (oral traditions and myths also) in a proposition are not depended on the judgments of the majority, or readers of Matangi Tonga Online, but facts are tested, hypothesized and compared only with other facts in a scientific, philosophical and logical apparatus whereby the inferences are derived from and treated as Conclusion of Premises.
Best Regards,
Siosiua Lafitani-Tofua'ipangai
Lo'au Research Society
slafitani [at] nuama [dot] org