Lei aloha...

My family is from Tonga, the land where time begins.  This small group of islands is the last remaining Kingdom in the South Pacific.  My parents left the friendly islands in the early 1970's.

The item that I have chosen to represent my families migration is this shell lei.  Not only do I come from a family of 11 children, and I have 33 nieces and nephews, but both parents have big families as well.  A missionary who labored in Tonga, an uncle who joined the American Army in Samoa and marriage to an American Citizen became the avenue for my family's migration.  My uncle was first, then my father, followed by my mother ad seven older siblings.  Migration continued till all of my parents families were in America.

The intricate piecing of these shells took a lot of patience, hard work and time to piece together.  My parents left the familiarity of home to come to America for the benefits of better education, and more opportunities.  Just like piecing this lei together they worked very hard to come to America and to keep us here.  My father worked landscaping and built rock walls during the day time and washed dishes at night at a restaurant.  My mother worked from home, making crafts and souvenirs to sell to tourists.

Kavenga is a term that is used often in the Tongan culture.  In a round about way, kavenga means shared responsibility.  This lei is composed of many shells, individually they are brittle and as they fall they affect the way the whole shell lei looks.  Just like each shell depends on the other one for completion, so it is with the Tongans and their support of each other.

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