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Marcellin College
My Cultural Heritage
What Tongan boys wear
My name is Asilusi. I am a Tongan. I am a member of the Marcellin College Tongan group, and we performed in the the Secondary Schools Pacific Festival. For this performance I had to wear a special cloth called 'tapa' cloth.
This is a very special cloth, and it was made for me by my grandmother who was in Tonga at the time. She made the cloth from bark and painted it with red-brown paint. There are symbols on the cloth. One of them represents the rising sun.
I felt really special and proud to be representing my family on this day. My family was really proud of me too. My mum dressed me and my family watched me perform.
There is a special belt that holds up my tapa cloth. It was made from my Mum's hair from when she was a little girl. So this is a combination of my Mother (the belt) and my Grandmother (the tapa cloth).
We put on the necklace and the wrist cuffs last. These represent my Father's side. The necklace is made from a red bark and the wristbands are made from pine leaves. These things give me strength from my whole family.
I was very proud when I was doing the performance, and never nervous.
I liked representing my country. I think you only get that chance once in a while, so I was really happy to do it. Even though I was born in New Zealand, I'm still a full Tongan - I feel really passionate about being a Tongan.
If I were going to use one word to sum up the festival, it would be 'pride'.
This is Asilusi in his Tongan costume.
(Photograph copyright Lyn Potter, 2003)
