Land and sea
Land & Sea | Fonua & ‘Oseni is a bilingual book written in English and Tongan by Moana Uluave-Hafoka and illustrated by Nansi Guevara. Tongan is spoken on the island Kingdom of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean which has a population of around 100,000. Many Tongans live outside of the island nation in places such as New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Although about 100,000 Tongans no longer inhabit their native lands, many of the cultural values such as tauhi vā, or reciprocity in relationships, continue to be passed down from generation to generation in the Tongan diaspora. Land & Sea | Fonua & ‘Oseni seeks to share a story of reciprocity between land, sea, and people. It wrestles with remembering our ancient promises and the consequences of forgetting them. We offer up this story as a gift to our children and hope they will always remember our land, sea, and people.