Fisi’inaua ‘I Vaha: a Tongan Migrant’s Way: A Methodist Minister Applies Tongan Social Concepts in a New Zealand Setting

Rev Siosifa Pole highlights Tongan cultural and social concepts and explores how they relate to his experience as a minister in English language, New Zealand parish settings. He hopes the book will improve the understanding by other people of the Tongan way of thinking and of doing things.

The book’s title, Fisi’inaua ‘i vaha, refers to the spray of sea water from the big waves that crashed on the double-hulled canoes in which his ancestors navigated the ocean to find new lands of opportunities.

This book includes significant conference papers Siosifa presented on issues such as child abuse and youth suicide, land, and displacement. There is also a helpful glossary of Tongan social and cultural concepts.

“This book reflects my journey of ministry in the Methodist Church of New Zealand over the last seventeen years. This journey was like sailing on double-hulled canoes in the vast Pacific Ocean. During this period, I practised my ministry in various contexts, in which I encountered diverse social issues, that my family, members of parishes I served, and communities that I was part of, confronted. My experiences prompted me to write articles for our Parish bulletin when I was in the Dunedin Methodist Parish, and papers that I presented in Conferences as one of the voices taking part in talanoa (story telling) in the theological landscape, as well as in the church. Mine is not the only voice, but one of many voices from the vaha.

My hope in writing this book is to empower both lay people and ordained ministers in the Methodist Church of New Zealand and beyond, to develop their own concepts, from their cultural and theological contexts, that will assist them in their reading and interpretation of Biblical texts.” From the Introduction

Praise for Fisi’inaua ‘i Vaha – A Tongan Migrant’s Way:

“In this challenging collection of essays we hear the voice of a modern Tongan religious leader exploring with us, his readers, what it is to inhabit two island worlds… Always speaking from a close sense of gathered family connections and gifted with an undiminished delight in the natural world around him, he proudly brings the words and images of his Tongan background into a conversation that has been developing for many years among Christian communities in this much-colonized land.” From the Preface by Emeritus Professor Colin Gibson.