About us

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 We empower descendants of the people of Tonga and the broader Moana to deepen their understanding through a guided presentation of ancestral knowledge and practices based on trusted resources. 

Through facilitating the nurturing of ancestral connection, we support members of our Moanan community in cultivating mana and tauhi vā presently and for the future. 

Fale Lulu is for all members of the Tongan and broader Moanan/Pasifika diaspora who have felt a desire to learn more about their deep ancestral roots, but not known where to start. Many of us have grown up participating in the culture to various extents through family events and church communities but have been unsure of where to turn for more information on the long and complex history of our peoples from whence our culture and identity emerged.

The most accessible information is in fragments that can be stitched together from the stories of our elders', snippets of questionable reliability found on social media, and careful academic deep-dives and analyses on specific topics. The fragmentary nature of this information makes it incredibly difficult to search through and synthesize for those who lack a robust cultural framework or internal model of our ancestral worldview(s). And since further developing that internal cultural framework and worldview is often the goal for many members of the diaspora, these searches can frequently feel overwhelming and like dead ends. 

When we, our communities, and our culture are in harmony, we can contextualize the events of our lives and communities within a robust cultural framework through the vessel of stories, songs, performances, rituals, and practices. These cultural vessels (such as rituals and stories) then also grow and evolve in meaning based on the times and places in which we have deployed them to gain and form mutual understanding. The culture gives meaning, and our assignment of meaning creates culture, all in a harmonious cyclical process.

Fale lulu aims to provide a learning experience that provides cultural context and historical information in a way that builds on itself cyclically, deepening understanding, connection, and power with each return. But this is only half of the cycle: the other half is in the way that we show up for each other and our world, knowing that we can rely on our ancestral mana to guide and empower us. This resource is for those who both wish to learn, and who wish to show up.

I created Fale Lulu to be the resource I wished I would have had several years ago. As the granddaughter of a Tongan immigrant to the US, I both deeply cherished my Tongan heritage, and often felt "on the outside" of it. I spent over a decade of my adult life slowly but earnestly working to understand where I came from and how to deepen my understanding of the values and principles that had implicitly infused my life with so much support, love, and fierce dedication to creating a better world for our communities. 

When I was younger, my grandfather used to relate that his mother was "superstitious" and given to "ghost stories". He never elaborated on this and I never knew what questions to ask to learn more about what he meant specifically. A year or two before his terminal cancer diagnosis, I felt an intense urgency to learn as much about early Tongan history and practices as I possibly could. In the months before his passing, I was finally able to ask him the questions I'd always wanted the answers to, and was able to understand what the answers meant. I could also share old stories from home with him, and design a tapa for him which he was later buried with. 

My grandfather was born in the village of Fotua on the island of Foa in Ha'apai, Tonga. His father was descended through the Niukapu line from the Tui Ha'atakalua and thus the Tu'i Tonga, whose first king was the son of Tangaloa according to oral tradition. My grandfather's mother was a faito'o who specialized in the treatment of hangatamaki mata, drawing resources from her mother's land in the bush which she had carefully cultivated with all manner of medicinal plants. Both of them had reported seeing the spirit or "tevolo" Fehuluni on the beach many times. The vaka or vessel of Fehuluni traditionally is the kingfisher bird or Sikota, but it is thought that another one of their manifestations is Malimeihevao, whose manifestation is the Lulu or owl. They are considered a revealer of truth. Fehuluni is the grandchild of Hikuleo, who is herself the sister of Tangaloa. 

When I was a baby, my aunty Puanani gave me the name Lulu and it stuck. She did not have in mind any of the above relations and connections, as those stories had long been buried. But it's a name that I hold onto with purpose because it reminds me of the mana that I carry and my responsibility to use it to create a better future for my family and community.