Sio FakaTonga 'ae 'Aati FakaTonga - Tongan Views on Tongan Arts

We draw on Tāufa’āhau’s words to highlight the urgency and immediacy of the need for this book, which is to fill the knowledge gaps around ‘what art is?’ and ‘what art does?’ from Tongan views. The realities of a status quo of ignorance feeding into a perpetual cycle of misinterpretation and inaccurate information, based on colonised knowledge of what Tongan art is, initiated the idea for this book in 2012. The only ways to combat ignorance is to shift the problematic axis of seeing Tongan art from a condition of imposition and domination of European / Western views, to a state of mediation and liberation through Tongan views. This can only be done when Tongan views of Tongan arts are firstly known, then understood, then followed by being embedded into the status quo. We echo the sentiments of Tāufa’āhau’s words, “you see the way it’s done, you see that this is how”, by offering the fuo forms and uho contents of this book as an example of “how” we can move from colonised knowledge to decolonised knowledge.