Hi guys! I am a young pacific female from a family of 10 siblings, 2 of which are adopted out to my fathers family – both boys with one being a identical twin and the other who I have no memory of what so ever, as he was adopted out after a few months after birth.
Growing up was your typical strict parents but due to my mother being born in NZ there was some leniency in breaking cultural norms and rules that enabled us to seek further into this great white mans world of freedom and privilege. This was the world I looked up to and a world of which I dreamed to live as a young ignorant brown girl. The life I wanted to live because the thought of being Tongan was dreadful and burdening. This resonates with the work of Pau’u (2002), where she tells her story of her life through four cultures. Worlds can be opened up through doors of education where diverse cultures and people are introduced to us, different attitudes in our friends, straight hair and thing noses with thin thighs and fast metabolisms. It is observations such as these, that we as humans come to be observant of and some of which we dream to have.
Growing up poor was a burden, well I thought it was however, it is now that I embrace it. The struggle left room for me to prosper, feed and tame my ego, it left room to elevate and develop as a young tongan sista. Now, here I am currently in my last sem of my degree, being poor is nothing but a blessing! Although, this B.A doesn’t give me money and it surely doesnt make me rich in wealth BUT I have found wealth in being rich in soul and knowledge of the values I have encompassed from God, family and friends. I AM THANKFUL! blessed to be burdned with being brown ya reckon? HA!