Mobility justice: Tongan elders engaging in temporal trans-Tasman migration for caregiving duties

ABSTRACT

This is an account of the ways that Tongan elders who engage in temporal migration across the Tasman Sea, between Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have helped to forge mobility justice in their collectives. Their engagement in grandparent duties within their collectives often drives their temporal trans-Tasman migration. Images, narratives, and observations of six Tongan elders’(aged between 60−75 years) trans-Tasman movements related to their familial roles, over a period of eight years (2014–2021), reveals the significance of caregiving for children/grandchildren – tauhi fanau – for many working Tongan families with limited access to affordable childcare in Australia. The cultural practice of shared tauhi fanau promotes collective mobility for many Tongan households. The cultural functions carried out by Tongan elders help to interconnect families, across diaspora contexts. This unique account considers the impact of COVID-19 on Tongan collective mobilities and the re-defining of responsibilities enacted by Tongan elders in their trans-Tasman collectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Aotearoa (New Zealand)
• Australia
• collective mobilities
• cultural responsibilities
• talanoa vā
• tauhi fanau

Research positionality

Malo e lelei, I firstly acknowledge my Creator and God. Ke langilangiia pe ae ‘Eiki!

Secondly, I acknowledge the traditional custodians past, present and emerging for I am a Tongan woman, wife, mother, and academic residing on Yugambeh lands. It is a rare privilege to be presenting my Tongan people’s shared knowledge in the academic spaces of Australia. So, I remain grateful for the opportunities to do so.

My work on Tongan collectives and their mobilities is part of a larger study of Pasifika mobilities intersecting Indigenous mobilities, to and through Australia; a collaboration led by Dr. Katherine Ellinghaus at La Trobe University, alongside Dr. Rachel Standfield at the University of Melbourne. In this work, I am conscious of my connections to others within my community. So, I acknowledge who I am in my Tongan collective; I am the daughter of Faifekau ‘Ahoia and Faifekau Lose ‘Ilaiu, born second of eight children. I am also an extension of our household; my Samoan husband Thom Faleolo, and our children, who have been raised by a multi-sited Pasifika village – our trans-Tasman familial collectives living across Aotearoa New Zealand (A-NZ) and Australia.

When I think about my childhood, I have vivid memories of my four grandparents’ involvement in my upbringing, whether it was in Tongatapu Island, during our month-long stays in my father’s village, Mu‘a, or it was in Greenlane, sleeping over at my maternal grandmother’s cottage. Years later, my paternal grandparents, Semisi and Saane ‘Ilaiū, travelled from Tongatapu Island to visit us in Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland, A-NZ), assisting where they could. I especially remember during the 1980s–1990s, my maternal grandmother ‘Ana ‘Akauola, would often stay with us in Otara, sometimes for a series of weeks while our parents (church ministers) travelled. ‘Nana’ as we affectionately called her, was the main alternate carer during my upbringing in A-NZ, and this was also the case for my seven siblings. This shared childcare arrangement is common practice within most Tongan households and familial collectives. As Thom and I became young parents in the late 1990s--2000s, we became beneficiaries of the shared carer arrangements, provided by my own parents, as well as my Samoan in-laws, Saolotoga and Malia Faleolo. Their ongoing support in helping to care for our young children, especially while we were at work during the formative years of our careers, was invaluable. It only seems natural that when I am in my elderly years, my own children will seek this support.

Introduction

Sheller (2018a) introduces us to the concept of mobility justice, in which the freedoms and barriers to travel or transport, rights to space, capabilities, distribution and dominion are measures of people’s mobility realities. This is an account of how Tongan elders who engage in temporal migration across the Tasman Sea, between Australia and A-NZ have helped to forge mobility justice in their collectives. Firstly, we will consider the Tongan concept of caregiving for children or grandchildren: tauhi fanau, and secondly, the key roles of Tongan elders in collective mobility. Thirdly, we will consider the barriers and hurdles for Tongan elders’ mobility to/through Australia, as well as fourthly, the impacts of COVID-19 on Tongan collective mobility.

Talanoa vā: a respectful approach

In any Tongan context, when dealing with our elders, it is an expectation that one is respectful. We are taught this from a young age to show faka‘apa‘apa (respect); a deference toward a person of relational positioning over your own, including age, alongside an innate understanding of other dimensions of sociocultural relationality, such as ‘ofa (love) and talangofua (obedience).

So, it is only natural that as a Tongan woman researching our elders, both face-to-face and online, I was engaging in a culturally respectful way. Talanoa vā is a Pacific research approach that encompasses a narrative method alongside cultural reciprocity and respectful protocols. Within this approach, talanoa and e-talanoa – method/ology that I discuss elsewhere (Faleolo 2021; Faleolo 2023; Fa‘avae et al. 2022a) – were used to collect stories and images used in this paper.

Over a period of eight years (2014–2021), I have observed the trans-Tasman movements of six Tongan elders (aged 60–75 years) in their ongoing engagement with caregiving for their children and grandchildren, tauhi fanau. Each of these Tongan elders was either introduced to me during my scoping research and PhD project (2014–2019) by members of their families or were already known to me, as members of our Tongan collectives in A-NZ and Australia. However, to ensure the privacy of these participants, I use pseudonyms alongside the excerpts of narratives recorded here, and the photographs purposely acknowledge informants who had provided these, unlinked to the individual narratives, yet provide a contextual understanding of what is being discussed.

The temporal migration patterns observed amongst these Tongan elders, between A-NZ and Australia has been sustained by their cultural roles and responsibilities. These aspects will be discussed further in the following sections.

Tauhi fanau: caregiving for children and grandchildren

The shared act of tauhi fanau has two outcomes. Firstly, it supports the opportunity for economic development of the Tongan collective. Tongan elders who provide care in the context of scarce affordable childcare in Australia (Noble and Hurley 2021) help to improve the economic situation of their families (Fainga’a-Manu Sione, Stanley, and Enari 2023) This also has the benefit of a culturally enriching experience for children being cared for (Tamasese, Parsons, and Waldegrave 2014; Tautolo et al. 2017) as well as offering a sustainable cultural model for future generations in the diaspora whereby reciprocal sociocultural benefits are attained by both grandparents and grandchildren (Enari and Faleolo 2020; Enari and Matapo 2020; Ihara and Vakalahi 2012).

In essence, the cultural practice of shared tauhi fanau promotes collective mobility for many Tongan households (Figure 1). The familial collectives, that often include several adult children with their children in separate locales or households, are interconnected by the cultural functions carried out by Tongan elders. For instance, Tongan elders provide care for babies and children by helping with everyday tasks such as cooking, dressing, hair care and gardening to provide daily sustenance for everyone. These daily activities are captured in Figure 1. These interconnections and tauhi fanau arrangements often happen across diaspora contexts, whereby our Tongan elders are given ‘all expenses paid airfare tickets, comfortable accommodation set-up in the home and weekly allowance money’ by their children to ‘come and stay for a while.’ This is a reciprocal arrangement where neither party is financially disadvantaged, in fact it is regarded as a way to increase collective economic wellbeing and family cohesion. However, tauhi fanau is not motivated by money, but is done for love and service – ngaue ‘ofa’ according to all six elders. Their purpose for travelling and living-in with their children and grandchildren is purely to contribute to the raising of their families so that they can progress – fakalakalaka.

Figure 1. Tongan Elders and Caregiving Roles in Tongan Collectives: contributing to supervision of young children, grooming, cultural ideas and traditional food growing practices. (Photo credits: Robyn Finau, Lesley Afu and Inez Fainga‘a-Manu Sione; photos used with permission granted 13 June 2022).

Key role of Tongan elders in collective mobility

There are three aspects of Tongan collective mobilities that come to mind as valid points for discussion, in relation to the role of Tongan elders in collective mobility justice: (1) the role of Tongan elders in collective mobility and migration; (2) Tauhi fanau, a Tongan concept of caregiving and how this contributes to mobility justice; and (3) the impacts of COVID-19 on Tongan collectives and the redefined role of Tongan elders.

The role of Tongan elders in our collective mobility and migration is quite a significant one (Figure 2). Figure 2 illustrates how Tongan elders understand their duties to family. Importantly, for this discussion, mobility is a key component of how they perform traditional caring for their families. Restrictions to travel, therefore, have important implications for the maintenance of Tongan culture.

Figure 2. Tongan Elders – Equalise, Engage, Support, Sustain and Provide for Tongan Collectives.

Tongan elders promote our familial well-being by providing sociocultural knowledge – a process of fakakoloa whereby Tongan elders are ‘purposefully sharing’ and ‘imparting knowledge’ to enrich their families (Fa‘avae, Fehoko, and Vaka 2022b, 94) – and continuing practices that can only be taught through enacting, role-modelling, and experiencing (Enari and Faleolo 2020). They are also providing a financial relief from the rising cost of childcare services through external providers. My observations of the six Tongan elders’ contributions to their families reveals an equalising mobility function carried out by Tongan elders who engage in an ongoing, cyclical, and temporal migration across the Tasman Sea, between A-NZ and Australia. Their engagement in grandparent duties within their collective support and drive the trans-Tasman migration of families. These elders physically build and support familial connections across multi-sites of their extended family groups through their movements, as well as by their vital elder leadership, and spiritual guidance that sustains our familial collectives.

This multi-faceted caregiving extends the benefits of sociocultural connections and collective well-being across the generations (Faleolo 2020a). For all the Tongan elders interviewed, tauhi fanau occurs both pre-natal and post-natal, and often continues in the form of regular short visits and annual long stays to nurture and support their adult children and their growing families. Tauhi fanau involves the promotion of a collective well being and generational progress, by supporting the holistic upbringing of their grandchildren throughout their various stages of development.

For many Pasifika families moving to Australia, from A-NZ, under the trans-Tasman Agreement, the need to work is often balanced against the limited financial means to pay for childcare. New Zealanders (Kiwis) arriving after 2001 and 2016, including Kiwi Tongans, have had decreasing access under the Trans-Tasman agreement, to medical, educational, and childcare subsidies despite contributing to the tax system in this country. In essence, Kiwis living in Australia do not have the ease of access to the social benefits that is otherwise enjoyed by Australians living in A-NZ (Faleolo 2019; 2020b). So, in response to these differing mobility regimes, it is common practice for Tongan elders to shadow their adult children and grandchildren’s step-migration from A-NZ to Australia, to freely give their service of tauhi fanau.

Tongan elders’ mobility: barriers and hurdles

Sosaia aged 75 years at the time of our last communication, had travelled back and forth between his home in A-NZ and that of his daughter in Australia; this occurred over a period of 5 years since the birth of his grandson, until his grandson began school. Although his grandson no longer required full-time care, Sosaia would still plan trips to visit his daughter when she needed extra support:

‘When my daughter is needing help with Sione, when she is busy for work, I fly to Brisbane to stay with them and take him to school and I get involved in his sports programs afterschool.’ (Sosaia)

Another set of grandparents Paea and Selu, aged 60 and 67 living in A-NZ, began their trans-Tasman tauhi fanau travels in 2014 when their daughter first moved to Australia as a newlywed, and expecting their first grandchild. Although these grandparents are Permanent Residents of New Zealand, they have remained Tongan citizens, travelling on Tongan passports. So, each trip requires them to apply for visas and visa renewals to extend their stay beyond just a visit. This couple were making the trip over for tauhi fanau at least twice a year each; so between them that was at least four visa applications a year so that they could share the care of their grandchildren. They were making these regular trips until the start of 2020. Recently, they resumed their habit of travel, navigating in and around the on/off pandemic restrictions. For instance, in 2020 they flew into New South Wales and waited out a window when border closures temporarily ceased in Queensland. This sacrifice of an elders’ time and finances is considered a regular part of being a grandparent. Similarly, their adult children were fully invested in the visa applications and border entry processes for their parents. Paea explains why this is important for her family:

‘We travel back and forth between our home in New Zealand and our daughter’s home in Australia because we love to see our grandchildren grow up and become good people, doing good in school and in church. We want to be there for their good and bad times.’ (Paea)

However, for migration purposes, such values-based explanations are not enough, according to adult children receiving the support. Filling out visa applications for their elderly parents, travelling to Australia on a Tongan passport, is never an easy deed. There is the constant need to explain why their elders were travelling to Australia more specifically, than just their simple need for childcare. So, visa applications were often submitted in and around family milestones (e.g. weddings, reunions) and cultural events (church conferences, etc.) occurring in a given year. This is a way of persuading Australia Immigration services to approve the travel and long-stay of their elders (which expires after 90 days’ if not extended) as well as receive tauhi fanau support. For some Tongan elders, their application to extend a visitors’ visa is not always approved and requires that they return to A-NZ and await another opportunity to reapply. This takes more time and money, but the elders and their adult children believe it is all-worthwhile in the end.

Seini, aged 69 years, travelled twice in 2017 to Australia awaiting the arrival of her grandchild and then returned to A-NZ after her grandson was born. It was then, that she decided to apply for a New Zealand citizenship, giving up her old Tongan passport for the new A-NZ e-passport. She said she was nervous doing this as she felt she had given up on her Tongan-ness in the process. But she was also glad that she could travel freely to Australia whenever she needed to support her daughter with tauhi fanau; this was while her son in-law was travelling for work projects abroad and her daughter had returned to full-time work at the end of her maternity leave. Tevita aged 60 was also travelling on a Tongan passport, to provide his service of tauhi fanau in support of his son who was studying full-time in Australia towards a four-year degree. This was to allow his daughter-in-law to work a full-time job without worrying about childcare expenses during 2015–2018. Tevita also felt it was a cultural responsibility of being an elder to teach anga faka-Tonga – ‘The Tongan Way’ – to his children, and grandchildren.

‘I like to help my son and daughter-in-law. I see them twice a year and sometimes more when I can travel more. I really need to pass on everything I was taught by my parents and my grandparents when I was growing up in Tonga. These young ones are growing up in another country far away from our island. So, it is my job to help teach them anga faka-Tonga and things about our culture.’ (Tevita)

Of the six grandparents whose narratives and voices are presented in this presentation, four have travelled at least bi-annually to help care for their children and grandchildren. Two have made the significant decision to live long-term in Australia, inversely travelling to A-NZ to check on their homes/property and other family members based there. By planning and carrying out these temporal/semi-permanent travel and living arrangements, Tongan elders help to lessen the negative impacts or challenges experienced by their children and grandchildren in migration. They further promote a collective progress; fakalakalaka. These elders actively engage in driving the migration and progressive movements of their families through their physical shadow migration and physical support provided by way of childcare. This physical presence of elders in their multi-sited family collectives helps to sustain their economic well-being. The narratives presented reveal the significance of tauhi fanau as a way of promoting mobility justice for many Tongan families, living, and working in Australia, with limited access to affordable childcare.

An overarching theme that emerges is their role as spiritual leaders within their familial collectives. Their attendance and presence at events such as birthdays, weddings, graduations, and funerals are seen to be as important as that of the church pastor’s role. They bring a spiritual guidance and direction to their families through their ongoing prayer, fasting and biblical teachings within the home. In essence, the Tongan elder is seen as an important family member that is highly valued by other members of their collective and often referred to by their children and grandchildren as a ‘blessing’ in their homes.

Tauhi fanau is part of familial collective agency that is a common practice in other diaspora contexts, like America whereby Tongan collectives strive and thrive together; something that has deep cultural roots in our Tongan village practices of collective living. This cultural practice of shared tauhi fanau promotes a collective mobility for many Tongan households. This practice further interconnects us, across diaspora and homeland contexts, by the cultural functions carried out by Tongan elders (Figure 3). Like Tevita, Tongan elders teach and nurture our cultural values. They pass on their cultural knowledge and practices to younger generations, who despite growing up away from Tonga will continue to develop a strong cultural identity, that is further passed on to their children (Fainga’a-Manu Sione, Stanley, and Enari 2023; Faleolo 2020a; Tamasese, Parsons, and Waldegrave 2014).

Figure 3. Tongan elders demonstrate cultural practices in diaspora – these kie are fine mats worn on special occasions. The pictures on the left show grandparents preparing their granddaughter to perform at a family wedding. These same grandparents are preparing their son, the groom on his wedding day. Photo credit: Inez Fainga‘a-Manu Sione; photos used with permission granted 13 June 2022.

COVID-19 impacts on Tongan collective mobility

The impacts of COVID-19 policies on the mobility of Tongan collectives have forced adult children to reconsider the movements of their parents or grandparents – the power of local and national governments to affect a longstanding cultural practice occurred almost overnight, creating uneven powers of mobility (Sheller 2021). In the beginning of 2020, media discourse around the risks of COVID-19 positioned the elderly as ‘vulnerable’ and recommended they remain in ‘physical isolation’. This went against Pasifika beliefs about elderly family members being ‘champions’, ‘trail blazers’ and ‘stalwarts’ and almost overnight our elders lost their autonomy and freedoms to move within our collectives (Enari and Faleolo 2020; Fainga’a-Manu Sione, Stanley, and Enari 2023; Faleolo 2020a).

With the pandemic came new language and different perspectives employed by local, state, and national governments through media that led to a total shutdown in large familial gatherings and events that often brought our elders across seas. This was felt by Tongan collectives, as was the case with several others across the globe, as a mobility injustice; created by the various controls over movement that were wielded by national and local governments (Enari and Faleolo 2020; Sheller 2018b; Sheller 2021). At this time, again as it was the case with others, Tongans were forced by law to physically isolate. This was particularly felt by our elders, who faced extreme isolation and social restrictions for fear of imminent death and pandemic health issues that were statistically impacting elderly people. But this change in mobility practices and the narratives around the risk to the elderly in the community provided us with an opportunity to rethink the role of Tongan elders in some respects, particularly that of their physical contribution and service to their familial collectives.

In short, the most evident impacts of COVID-19 on Tongan collective mobilities were that they were no longer able to connect physically; it caused a re-defining of the roles played by Tongan elders within and across their trans-Tasman collectives. On the upside, the lockdowns meant adult children were no longer working away from home and could be working from home, with their children. For the grandparents, this also came as a light relief from their usual duties that involved a lot of time away from their actual homes, beloved gardens, and community friends. This point of respite, during the pandemic, was jokingly referred to by some of the elders as ‘a well-deserved break from childcaring responsibilities’ perhaps pointing to the burden of emotional labour that is often not acknowledged. The general response of Tongans, to the pandemic restrictions, led to a social pause and more reflexive considerations around any form of mobility within and in-between the collectives, and especially prioritising wellness first and foremost.

Ever present, was the need to remain connected and for many, after every lockdown stint, a high desire to reconnect was highlighted in the narratives. So much so, that several elders who pre-COVID did not own a mobile phone, or a Facebook account became IT savvy and were often upskilled by their children and grandchildren in shared attempts to connect virtually. Our need to see each other face-to-face, even if just for a moment on a glitchy internet connection and on a tiny screen, was sufficient to nurture us. Having the capacity for regular intergenerational connections within families, opened up the channels of elderly wisdom and guidance, maintaining spiritual and emotional sustenance in Tongan collectives.

The role of a Tongan elder in drawing members of the family together, pre-Covid often in face-to-face family gatherings in the lounge, during the pandemic became a regular Face time/Zoom time session that occurred around a device across several households. Children and grandchildren were still able to feel the virtual presence of elders, and in return, grandparents visually saw the many connections they had built across time and space with ‘those many little faces now peering back on the screen.’ In essence, the pandemic heightened our realisation of the significant role that our Tongan elders play, both in our collective mobilities and holistic well-being (Faleolo 2020a; 2020b).

Concluding thoughts: the significance of this study

So, why does this research matter in Australia?

Notably, this study contributes to a better understanding of the Pasifika populations that are entering Australia from A-NZ. Moreover, Pasifika elders are increasingly promoting the option of moving to and through Australia, from A-NZ, as an improved way of life – fakalakalaka for their collectives. The recent announcement (22nd April 2023) by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of the 1st of July 2023 changes for New Zealand citizens to further attain Australian citizenship (Macmillan 2023), supports the trans-Tasman message advocated by our elders.

These political changes happening in Australia are indicative of the economic needs, in this post-pandemic time. Recent data (ABS 2021; Faleolo 2020b) captures the growing population of Pacific peoples, including Tongans, residing in Australia. In particular, the ageing population structure of Australia’s workforce beckons the younger Pasifika cohorts to join their industries (Enari and Faleolo 2020; Faleolo 2019; Lakisa, Taylor, and Adair 2020; Stead 2019; Stead, Taula, and Silaga 2022). Australia is a culturally and linguistically diverse country with a high proportion of people born overseas or with a parent born overseas (ABS 2021). So, this study highlights the interconnectedness that occurs across Tongan families living in Australia and in other parts of the globe, including A-NZ. Particularly, how this temporal and trans-Tasman mobility of Pasifika, including Tongan collectives, contributes to solutions needed in Australia. For as much as Australian industries call for working-age Pasifika men and women to come to its shores, they do not travel solo for long; there needs to be a more holistic understanding of the way Pasifika collective-individuals (Fainga’a-Manu Sione, Stanley, and Enari 2023) are migrating and settling in Australia. This study addresses a gap in research literature, being the first article to address this topic of mobility justice from a Tongan perspective. It provides insight into an ethnic-specific (Tongan) perspective on temporal trans-Tasman migration for caregiving duties in Australia, further revealing the interconnected narratives of the working-aged and the elderly within Pasifika families.

This paper has especially focused on the care and care-giving responsibilities of Tongan elders, tauhi fanau – this connection between care, mobility and justice are significant. The connection between these two concepts has been considered by Milligan and Wiles (2010) in their discussion of caregiving in families, and Rubin and Parker (2023) in their discussion of the many ways to care, in relation to mobility, gender, place and culture. These works and others (McEwan and Goodman 2010; Power and Williams 2020) articulate the significant links between care, mobility, and justice. Tongan understandings of care, captured in this discussion are shared within families and collectives through the imparting of sociocultural knowledge – fakakoloa – as discussed by Fa‘avae, Fehoko, and Vaka (2022b). So, our meanings of such care are enacted in relational spaces, as seen in tauhi fanau being carried out by our Tongan elderly as a part of our shared mobility in A-NZ and Australia.

The shared act of tauhi fanau supports the opportunity for economic development of the Tongan collective. Our Tongan elders provide childcare options in Australia, collectively improving their economic situation and ours. Importantly, the intergenerational relationships maintained are culturally enriching for our children who are being cared for, as well as the elders who are an esteemed individual in our collectives (Tamasese, Parsons, and Waldegrave 2014; Tautolo et al. 2017). Essentially, tauhi fanau given in care by Tongan elders, received in care by children and grandchildren, is a sustainable cultural model for future generations in the diaspora, as discussed. This model builds on sociocultural reciprocity whereby all members of a family will benefit.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).