Tongan girls at a funeral
Yesterday I went to a Tongan funeral in our Geelong East church. Mr David Ila Prescott, one of our friends aged 85 died last week. About 280 people attended the funeral, a three hour service, and we had an elaborate meal afterwards.
The picture is of three of the girls wearing black and wrapped around in pandanus woven mats, the custom for formal occasions such as a funeral.
W.
posted by Peceli and Wendy's Blog at 6:46 PM
5 Comments:
I knew lots of Tongan people in Hawaii. It is a little surprising to hear of them in Geelong. I guess if I knew Geelong better it wouldn't.
Actually there are only three Tongan families in our area that I know of, but hundreds of people come for an occasion such as a funeral. For Ila's funeral they came from Sydney, London, New Zealand. Two from Auckland came to our little Fiji Friday night function and said they haven't found such a kava group in New Zealand yet.
Pacific Islanders put a great emphasis on rites of passage.
W.
How insensitive of me for not offering my condolences on the passing of your friend. Forgive me.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
My condolences, the reason for my comment is i have recently relocated to Geelong and am not use to not having my tongan communitiy arround me, id love to get in contact with some tongan peiple around town.
Tevita Topui
tevita.topui@gmail.com
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