A warm malo e lelei, kia ora and welcome to our Graduate Story for November 2019, Ata Siulua. Ata came to Aotearoa last year to embark on his PhD journey at Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau (University of Auckland) in Ethnomusicology under the supervision of Dr. Kirsten Zemke and Dr. Gregory Booth.
Ata Siulua
Tell us about yourself:
I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah among a large kāinga (extended family clan) and Tongan community. I am Tongan with Japanese heritage. My parents are from the villages of Ha‘ateiho, Tongatapu (mother) and Lofanga, Ha’apai (father). I arrived in Aotearoa in October of 2018 to begin a PhD in Anthropology and currently live in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). Previous to moving to Aotearoa, I was working in higher education in student affairs. I like to say that I have interests and doing fun things like playing various sports such as volleyball, spikeball, and pickleball; or enjoying outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, and backpacking but the reality of how often I engage in these interests and activities will tell you otherwise (#fakaofa haha).
What drew you to anthropology?
My master’s was in higher education and I found that there was little research by and for Pasifika students and identities. In order to better understand the Tongan diasporic experience, I was drawn to Anthropology in looking critically at Tongan identity and Indigeneity. Specifically within the discipline, I was drawn to Ethnomusicology as music within my family has helped me navigate my own Tongan-ness. Coming from outside of the discipline I had a bit of a rough introduction to anthropology with a few experiences within my own institution and conferences where I questioned my place of study in this field. I was caught in between a liminal space of belonging within the discipline. I have since found a tough love and a renewed sense of affinity with anthropology. There is a movement by Indigenous and non-indigenous allied scholars that have been working toward an Oceanian Anthropology which I have been able to expand in my own methodology and theory.
What are you working on?
I am working on my PhD so the thesis is what I am working on among many other side writings that I shouldn’t commit to. The working title of my doctoral thesis is, Harmonising Home: Marking Tongan Indigeneity through Family and Music. Working within the locations of Tonga and Aotearoa New Zealand, my thesis will conceptualise an Indigenous Tongan Family system inclusive of the kāinga (extended family clan) and beyond the western constructs of the nuclear family, while exploring the role of music within these negotiations and formations. In doing so, this thesis seeks to better understand how using music as a medium of Indigenous ethnographic representation and performance can expand knowledge of family dynamics, relationalities and gender in the marking of Tongan Indigeneity beyond the influences of Western modernity. This thesis will be a critical Indigenous ethnography working with Tongan Families in Tongatapu, Tonga and Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.
How have you found life as a graduate student?
Life as a graduate student can be both rewarding and isolating. I think we all go through a reoccurring cycle of “I can do this, my research matters” to “What am I doing, I am a failure” and we must continually be diligent into not giving in to the constant feelings of self-doubt and imposter syndrome. My family and friends are a big support for me along with my supervisors that provide complimentary styles of mentoring and support. Other PhD students also provide critical support to me and the postgraduate experience. Utilising resources on campus has also provided amazing opportunities to grow such as seminars and attending writing retreats with other doctoral students in Social Sciences as well as other Māori and Pasifika post-graduates. Coming from the States there is a constant deficit view of why I am studying in Aotearoa NZ. On one side, people from the States ask, “why not study in the States?” and on the other, people ask “why study here when you could study in the States?” After being here in Aotearoa, with the Peoples of this whenua, among my own Pasifika and Tongan communities, I have had access to more resources, knowledge, people, and support that I know I would not have had anywhere else.
Current influential readings:
Shifting the ‘We’ in Oceania: Anthropology and Pacific Islanders Revisited (Tengan, 2018)
Marking Indigeneity: The Tongan Art of Sociospatial Relations (Ka’ili, 2017)
Rootz Vaka Transits: Traversing Seas of Urban Diasporic Indigeneity by Collapsing Time and Space with the songs and stories of the Kava Canoe (Tecun, 2019) https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/47566
Performing Indigeneity: Spectacles of Culture and Identity in Coloniality (Ndlovu, 2019)
Current influential video:
Joseph Campbell and the power of myth: https://billmoyers.com/series/joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-1988/
Current influential art:
Vaka ‘A Hina, Sea Vessel of Hina by Semisi Fetoaki Potauaine
Current influential music:
Hala kuo papa by Afokuola of the ‘Atenisi Institute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaXGsC2k8aE
