Tama ‘a Angahala

I was a mistake from the very beginning!

Before my birth, my mother was the subject of ridicule,

She was beaten by her parents and abandoned,

She was pressured to marry “angahala”,

I was just another feather in a man’s cape.

 

As a person,

My birth was registered without a father,

I was not entitled to my father’s family name,

I was not entitled to my father’s land nor inheritance,

The only support he gave me was an order enforced by the courts.

 

As a member of my family,

I was considered an “incomplete child”,

I was labeled “tama tu’utamaki”,

I was considered “second class” to those with “legitimate” parents,

The only support they gave me was a result of embarrassment to society.

 

I am the child with one parent,

I am a result of a mistake you say!

But you are forgetting something,

This was not my choice!

Is it my fault?

 

 – ‘AEK

 

Resources: Helen Morton, Becoming Tongan: An Ethnography of Childhood (1996) 54 – 56.