No. 787 Sioana Ngatuvai, 2009

File — Box: 74, Folder: 4

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Sioana Ngatuvai (b. 1938) was born in Pangai, Ha’apai, Tonga. She talks about what it was like growing up in Pangai with her siblings and some of her experiences at primary school and high school. In primary school the students would get hit on the fingers with rulers if they misbehaved or answered a question incorrectly. Sioana misbehaved and had a lot of fun in high school because she was so far away from her parents and because her half brother was the principal. Sioana was born and raised in the Mormon Church. Her parents were both converts to the religion. She tells the story of how her father came to the church. He was attempting to disrupt a meeting when a tree limb fell on him. He listened to the entire meeting stuck under the limb and afterwards decided to find out more about the church, after which he decided he wanted to become a Mormon. She talks about growing up during World War II. She remembers they had to keep the lights out at night. Sioana was not very afraid though. They did not really know what was going on because the war was not televised the way it is now. She remembers celebrating after the war was over and going through the American soldiers’ food supplies after they were gone. The soldiers also had a lot of children with the Tongan women that they left behind. Education was very important in her home growing up. Her father told the children that if they wanted a nice house and nice things later in life they would need to do well in school. Sioana went to college in Hawaii. Her high school in Tonga, Liahona, paid for her to go so that she could go back to Liahona and teach. She studied home economics. She talks about her first plane ride to Hawaii. While in Hawaii she worked for a brief time at a pineapple cannery and then danced at the Polynesian Culture Center. Sioana and her family moved to Provo, Utah because after one of their sons moved to Utah and told them how much he liked it, their other son wanted to move to Utah and play football. She talks about teaching their kids English. She regrets not teaching them Tongan because now they cannot speak or understand it.
Project: Pacific Islanders oral history project.
Interviewer: Savani Aupiu

Dates

2009

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.