Episode 40 - How Touʻa Changed From Men to Women.

In this episode, we dive deep into the history and evolution of Touʻa in Tongan faikava culture.

Was Touʻa originally a male role? How did it change over time from sacred ceremony into modern faikava settings? Drawing from academic research, oral history, and historical records, we explore the three types of faikava identified by Futa Helu and discuss how war, migration, and social change transformed the role of Touʻa in Tongan society.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Malailele Pulabinaka Talafalava and hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Pacific Impellment Podcast with your host, Akanesikao Fusi. It has been a very interesting week, you know, with the Fai Government attacking me on social media because I started speaking in Tongen. I was thinking to somehow translate some of my English podcast messages in Tongen language to see if the FaiGover men would understand, because I know many of them don't know how to speak in English, and I thought, oh, I'll translate the language into Tongen to see if they'll understand it. Maybe that's why many of them are still attacking me, because they don't understand the message. But uh surprisingly, when I tried to post the messages in Tonguin, they still misunderstood the message and what I was trying to say. So I thought the language barrier was the problem, but it turns out it's just that they are just too ignorant to understand the message, or maybe they just don't want to listen. They don't want to understand the message I'm trying to say. In our last week episode, we dived deeper into the pagan origins of cover before Christianity came to Tonga and the Pacific. And we also briefly discussed the origins of Doa and how history books themselves revealed that the Doa role in Enshin Tongen cover ceremonies was originally male, not female. But in today's episode, we are going to dig even deeper on the origins of Doa. Because we need to ask the question, you know, if Doa was originally a male role in Ensin' cover ceremonies, then how did it become a role mostly associated with young women sitting alone in the middle of groups of men? You know, we have to ask, who changed it? Who changed the role from a male to female and when did it change? And why did it change? And why are so many people today claiming it has always been tradition when historical and academic evidence suggests otherwise? So we are going to unpack that in this episode. Someone in the comments, you know, said it's a waste of time to talk about these historical facts because it doesn't help people. Well, it does help people, you know, for us to understand the origins of our culture, so we know the truth and not be misled by cultural practices that were adopted without question to suit some people's own interests, you know, especially men. And as specific people, we need to start asking harder questions, especially when women, families, and children are being impacted today. One of the biggest misunderstandings today is that people think doa always meant a young woman serving men cover, but historically that's not accurate. According to historical descriptions of the ancient Tongan royal cover ceremony called the Taumafa Kava, the word doa, it was originally male attendants, commoners, assistants or ceremonial helpers, and even chiefs sitting in the doa section. So originally, doa was more about ceremonial function and social position than gender. That is very important. Because today, many people speak as if women serving men in Fai Kawa has always been ancient sacred tongue and culture, but it's not. Historical evidence doesn't fully support that claim. So the ancient royal kaba ceremony was highly sacred and structured. Everybody has assigned positions, like I mentioned in the previous episode. Doa was political, spiritual, hierarchical, ceremonial. It wasn't a casual social hangout. And many of those ceremonial roles were male dominated. So in the cover ceremony they were all male originally, and already we can see modern Fai cava and ancient sacred cover ceremonies are not exactly the same thing. One of the most important scholars to discuss this was the late Tongan philosopher and intellectual Dr. Futahelo. In his academic writings about Tongan society and cover culture, he described different forms of cover, you know, and this is crucial because today many people lamb all phai kava together as if it has always been one fixed thing. But it wasn't. According to Halu, he identified three different forms of fai kava. The first one was Tao Fa Lokua, and the second one was Fai Gava Eva, and the third one was Gava Farasiasi or church cover. So Tao Fara Logua was a gava gatherings after a day's work in the plantation or at sea. And this is probably the closest to what many people would call today unwinding after work, brotherhood, storytelling, you know, discussing the day's labor. This was deeply connected to farming, fishing, and communal labor. And this type of fight gava had a social purpose decompressing after physical work, bonding, sharing, wisdom, and discussing community matters. Notice something important here. This type of cover gathering was not centered around entertainment. It wasn't about women. It wasn't nightlife culture. It was tied to labor and communal life. And according to this paper, modern urban fai gava adapted this structure into karach faigava, galapo, diaspora gava clubs, after work social gatherings. So what we see today in many places actually evolved from this original post-labour gathering. But then another type of cava emerged, and that is the Fai Gava Eva, the courtship cava. According to Dr. Hello, you know, this is the category that changes everything. Because Fai Gava Eva, where young men serenade and called a young woman, they asked to become the Doa. This is one of the strongest academic statements showing that female doa roles were associated specifically with courtship culture and not necessarily the oldest sacred chiefly ceremonies. Now this is huge historically, because today people say women serving in Fai Gava has always been sacred tradition. But according to the academic evidence, the female do a role became strongly associated with social courtship settings. Young men courting a woman, you know, serenading women, trying to impress a woman. And that is very different from ancient chiefly ceremonial structure. This explains a lot. Because many modern Fai Governor environments still carry traces of this courtship atmosphere. You know, the singing, the flirting, the choking, dirty talking, sexual harassing, you know, attention toward the doa performance behavior, entertainment, culture, as we are discussing back and forth with the Fai government today. The paper even explains that in modern settings, the Doa role became controversial because the woman was moved from her home into the realm of men. Because originally in Fai Ga Eva, the woman was often in her home environment, was often at home, you know? The men came to her space, but today, modern Kalapu shifted the dynamic. Now many Doa enter male dominated environments instead. And this is how the Doa role changed from being a male to female, as we see today. And you know, we have to ask, why was the Doa role shifted from the home to public community spaces? Well, there's no clear evidence of how the shift began. However, one of my followers messaged me I think early this year about what her grandmother shared with her regarding the sudden shift from Doa at home to Doa in public spaces. I'll read part of her message and she said, My grandma's sister said the reason the Fai Gawa changed venue was because when the war happened, people had to move out of Kolo, the urban area, and live away from their homes in Uta, in rural area, because the foreign armies were in the city. It was around this time, can't remember if it was during or after the war, that the Faigawa changed and they started meeting in community halls and getting a Doa, single girl, to do the Doa there in the community halls instead. I agree that Doa has changed and now become more akin to how we see the geisha's role in Japanese culture. Our Tongen Doa now has moved from being Daohi Mol Malu, being respectful, to becoming an entertainment piece, not just for young men, but also for married men. She has to delight, entertain, and be at the whims of whatever the men want. And you know, hearing stories like this from your grandparents is very important because this is exactly how oral history survives in our Pacific cultures. Not everything was written in books, you know, back in the days. A lot of our history was passed down through grandparents, elders, village memories, and family dalanoa. And what this message highlights is something very important. That Fai Gava itself evolved because society changed. And if this is true, then that means that the role itself also shifted with those social changes. This aligns strongly with the academic research we discussed earlier from scholars like Futahelu, who explained that FaiGava adapted over time through migration, urbanization, changing social environments in diaspora life. And I think one of the strongest points in this message is where she says, Doa moved from being respectful to becoming entertainment, you know? Because historically the role carried dignity, service, and ceremonial respect. But over time in some modern cover settings as we see today, the role became increasingly tied to performance, pleasing men, entertainment, flirtation, and you know, social expectation, and what I usually call prostitution or being stripper with clothes on. And this is exactly why so many women today are speaking up about discomfort, you know, pressure, harassment, and inappropriate behavior in certain fight gava environments. Now, to be clear, not every fight Gava is bad, you know, not every man behaves badly, but that's not a reason for us to look away. That's not a reason for us to say, not all men, and then we look away and ignore, you know, the sexual harassments, the sexual abuse, you know, the broken families, the struggling wives, you know? Just because not all men and not all fai cava does not mean we ignore the issue. We cannot ignore that the role itself has changed socially over time and it's affecting our community, our Tongan community. You know, the research explains that ancient sacred cover ceremonies, post-labo fai cava, you know, courtship fai cava, and modern kalabu culture all became blended together in modern society. And once that blending happened, the role of the doa also changed, so they're mixed together. So the real conversations we need to have as specific people or as tonguin people is not has culture changed? Because clearly it has. The real question is what parts of the change are helping our people and what parts are harming our people. Because culture should protect dignity, culture should protect women, culture should strengthen families, culture should uplift communities and not the opposite. And if certain modern practices are now causing broken homes, addiction, exploitation, abuse, or the objectification of women, then we should be mature enough as a people to examine those issues, honestly, instead of shutting down every conversation by saying, don't question culture. Because our ancestors themselves, according to historical evidence, adapted culture over time. And now in our generation, we must decide what kind of future do we want for Tonga and for the Pacific. That is the real conversation. That is the real question. And the last faigava that Dr. Helu discussed in his paper is Kava Frasyasi, or church cover. I discussed briefly, you know, the Gaba in church in my previous episodes. You know, and Futahelu here called Kava Frasyasi or Church Fai Gava is referred to church-based cava gatherings, Christian Gaba spaces, church leadership meetings involving kaba, and you know, youth church govern groups. The paper explains that many churches integrated Kaaba into fellowship, church discussions, welcoming ceremonies, and spiritual gatherings. And this is where things become spiritually complex. Because over time, Christianity and Kaaba culture begin merging together, you know, like the cover of the gospel that I mentioned in my previous episode. So some of the forgotten, you know, commented that not all churches drink cover. And yes, that is true, not all churches. I think the Seventh-day Adventist is the only church I know that they don't drink cover. The rest of the churches, you know, Mormons, Wesleyan, Methodists, Tongan, Testonga, they all drink cover. Not all churches, but most churches drink cover. And that needs change because getting drunk is not part of the church doctrines, according to the Bible. And you know, according to Dr. Hello, the modern kalabo became the dominant form of Fai Gaba today. You know, Gaba clubs that we see today in the Fai Gaba, regular Fai Gaba. In one night, men could unwind after work, flirt with a toa, sing religious songs, discuss politics, choke around in dirty talk, raise money, and perform cultural identity all in one fai gava. And you know, altogether mixed up. This explains why modern fai gava is so difficult to define, you know, because it's no longer just sacred ceremony or courtship or, you know, labor relaxation. It becomes all of them mixed together. And once you understand that historically, you realize why people today argue over what Fai Gava really is. Because different people are experiencing different layers of its evolution. If modern Fai Gava evolved, then why do people insist that every current practice is ancient sacred tradition and we shouldn't change it? Because the research here clearly shows adaptation of culture happened. Social changes happened, chender roles shifted, godship culture influenced doa roles, urbanization changed Fai Gava. Diaspora transformed Fai Gava further. This week, all I hear from men is saying to not get involved, you know, who am I to tell them what to do, it's each to their own, it's up to the individual, it's not all Fai Gava men. But the reason why I'm speaking up and I continue on to speak up and fight this issue is because of the impact of Fai Gava and Doha on women and our children. One of the most important parts of the paper discusses controversy surrounding Doa, the female Doha. It explains that some wives became uncomfortable with their husbands attending Faikava with female Doa. Some churches criticize the practice, and the paper directly mentions flirtation, courtship, behavior, and marital attention associated with some modern Fai Ga settings. Again, this is academic literature saying this, not just social media rumors. And this is why women speaking up today should not simply dismiss it as anticulture, because concerns around doa and gender dynamics have existed for a long time. You know? I'll read part of it from this article. Within the communities and specifically some religious denominations, the continued presence of a doa fifine at a kalapu is controversial, and some religious and community leaders have associated the practice with infidelity and marital discord. When hello refers to Fai Gavaeva, it is single man who caught the young woman, whereas in the Kalapu, flirtation can come from single men and married men. There are some spouses who I've spoken to that have expressed their discontent with this and in some cases. Such as one woman I spoke with in Tonga banned their husband's participation at a faigava if there is a doafini there. One participant said that the controversy has emerged because we have removed the doa from her home where she is host and brought her to the Kalapu in the realm of men. A doa fefini in her own home being courted differs from being outside of it as a guest or fulfilling a service. In many cases, payment or cash gifts are given. The new environments reflecting the changing gender and empower relations. Although this adaptation is controversial, Gaba courtship remains intact in outside ways and settings. Fai Gava, in its adaptations over time, has now consolidated various diverse practices and uses into the Galapu and other Gava drinking sessions. So overall, this evidence shows that Doa was not originally just women serving men. It was male originally. And Fai Gava evolved over time. You know, female Doa roles became connected strongly to courtship settings. Modern Galapu transformed these dynamics even further, and modern Fai Gava today is a fusion of many older traditions and newer social changes. So the real questions here is not should we blindly preserve everything? You know, instead the real question should be what kind of future do we want for our people? Because cultures evolve, they always have. The question is whether we evolve toward wisdom, accountability, protection, dignity, and truth, or whether we hide behind culture to avoid difficult conversations. I'll read a testimony from a doa she messaged me and said, Hi Nessie, I used to be a doa here in Tonga. My first time was okay. The older men were kind and treated me nicely. They respected me and there wasn't any bad talk. So I thought being a doa was fine. But the second time was horrible. My cousin was supposed to be the doa, but she asked me to replace her that night. During the fight Gava, these guys were sitting there and one of them started touching my legs with his hand. Then after a while, he came and sat close beside me and tried to touch my private area under the geek. So I swore at him and said, Is do you behave like this to your own daughter? And I told him, you know, to stop his bad behavior. Then they were like, Doa, why are you swearing at us? I stood up and walked outside crying. I did not expect that this nasty behavior would happen at the fight cover. Cause I know that these people are married men. They needed to respect the Doa. Especially when they are the ones who asked me to come and serve them cover and doa. So I called my mom to pick me and that's the first time my mom knows I'm doa. So then she stopped me from being doa and didn't know what happened during the fight cover that night. This is the kind of behavior I'm dealing with on social media. You know, these fai cava men when they are attacking me, they are attacking me and expect me not to react to their disrespect. And that is the same thing they are doing to the women. And the reason why this is so important is because their behavior in Fai Gava not only stays in Fai Gava, but they also behave like that to other women on social media and you know outside FAI Gava. So it's it's like normal for them to objectify women no matter where they are. When they go in Fai Gava and learn from other men who behave like this, you know, and then more men started behaving. Behaving like that because they think it's normal to objectify women. As you can see in social media, the kind of comments they make about me, the kind of comments they make to uh Doa, you know, and other women, you know, such disrespect because this is what they learned in Faikawa and they think it's normal and they think it's okay. I'll just read this message, one last message. Um she messaged me and she said, Akanesi, you are such a beautiful soul. God bless you and protect you always. If you share my perspective in all, please keep me anonymous. These men and their filth that lock God away in a box Monday to Saturday, thinking he isn't aware of their filthy, dishonest ways, men lust over other women in Tongen culture. For any Tonguin men we are as virgins. Linen is collected on first night of sleeping together to prove that families have kept their daughters for them being their first. I'm shocked that it's exposing the woman in regards to culture beliefs, not God's beliefs. This degrading of woman appears to be more exposure for centuries, and they are looking down upon women like they have saved themselves for her only. I'm lost in Tonguin culture honestly. I believe if everything is evolved around the men giving her a status, it allows them to be bashes of sin. If it's sleeping with Doa or a solo mother, which I know a lot father children within their marriages. I'm not Tonguin culture myself, but my husband's father always said, Allow my husbands to sleep with other women but to make sure I kept myself for just him. I was like, what the beep? Anyway, I wanted to share with you that women have always been looked upon as prey of lust, more so than as a princess of pride. Ministers should be speaking out in God's words and preaching of the words in fornication to these men. As I see a lot of fake ministers dressed in black suits, preaching God's word from their mouths, but their hearts say different. Then once Sunday church is over, God is locked up for the day. Religion to them from my perspective is if you're good, you can expect Father Christmas will bring you something. In God, it's your heart he wants, not your ways. Faith through his son Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. You are a blessing to many. Much respect to you, beautiful. BS a lot of us like to be anonymous for our family's sake in regards to exposing them, but I support your godly will. I love her message, and this message reflects what the testimony of the Doa that I just um read out, and how men are treating Tonguen women as like they are objects, property. Tongue and women are expected to be virgins, but when they get married and they're expected to be good women, to be good wives, stay at home while the men is out there, you know, cheating and um lasting at the doa and you know, sexually harassing the do'a, dirty tonguing the doa, and you know, sleeping with other women while the women is at home. And these are the kind of mistreatment of women that I'm fighting against, you know? And um it's been going on for centuries in the Tongan culture, in the Tongan society, and it's spreading not just in Tonga, but throughout the world. Wherever the Tongan community is, and wherever they do the Fai Gava culture, the Fai Gava in Doa, same problem happens everywhere. That's why we are trying to stop it in Tonga and then, you know, expand it, the ban of Doa to the rest of the world, because it's spreading like virus, you know, these behaviors of Fai Gava men and you know the broken marriages, you know, the sexual abuse of Doa, it's spreading like virus all over the world in the Tonga Fai Ga community. Like she said, church ministers, you need to preach the truth, you need to speak against this because I can't believe so many men are so lost. You know, some of them quote the scriptures. The only scriptures they know to quote against me is to stop judging them. But and especially when they quote the prostitutes, and I was like, Jesus said to the prostitute, I won't judge you also, but then he said, Go and sin no more. And that is the verse these men don't want to talk about. They only quote the first verse, but they don't want to quote the verse after when Jesus told the prostitute to go and sin no more. You know? And the only thing they know to tell me is do not judge, do not judge, do not judge. Who are you to judge? That is all they know. Because they don't want to repent, they don't want to change. You know, this is the kind of mentality, you know, that we need to change in our Tongen community, especially the Fai Government, Fai Governor. Well, that's it for today. I hope you learned something and uh share the episode. If you are Tongan and you understand English and Tongen, maybe translate it in Tongen. Um I wish I had time or I have a trans tongen translator to do all the translations of the podcast for me, but I don't have time to do both English and Tongan, but do share it and spread the word. And if you haven't signed the petition to ban the Doa campaign, it's still running. Please go to Pacifica, Pacifica Empowerment.org and sign the petition. I think we are over 2,000 signatures, so that's that's a really good improvement and it's growing every day, and we will keep fighting. So Tongu'in and non-tongen can also sign the petition because it doesn't just affect Tonguans, it affects non-tonguins as well. Like the woman I just read her message, she's not Tongen, but she's affected because her husband is Tongen. Um, but yeah, that's it. I hope you have a great week. Stay safe. And uh, women start speaking up, start standing your ground in five government, please listen and learn something. You know, don't be so ignorant. Don't use the Bible to justify your sin. You have to repent and change your sin. You don't try to fit scripture to your behavior and your culture, you have to change your culture according to the word of God. Oh, yes, that's it. Thank you very much.