Part One: Developing a hermeneutics for Tongans

This is the first part of a three parts essay on developing a hermeneutics for Tongans. This first part focus on 'orality and Tonga.' The idea was to discuss how orality function in Tonga and to define orality from a perspective of a Tongan. But there were challenges in this part of the essay. For example, discussing the subject of orality in regard to Tonga, knowing that Tonga is still within that orality stage of time. And because of that, resources was hard to find. However, there were two Tongan scholars who have manage to write, not a lot, on orality and they are Latukefu and Ha'u'ofa (last names). Another challenge, was having to write about 'orality'. It is much easier to talk about orality rather then writing about it. Orality in Tonga is not something that can be explain because it is something that we do. In that case, I try to use the two scholars above to describe how orality function in Tonga. Providing the way orality function in Tonga enable to talk about one of the element of orality, that is, talanoa (dialogue).

The idea in this part of the essay was to describe orality from a perspective of a Tonga, describe how it function, and used an element of orality as an example.