Queen Salote

Illuminated Address for Queen Salote Link With Old Tongan History

From a Special Correspondent

Nukualofa, Oct. 2.

SOME months ago, the Civil Servants of Tonga appointed a Committee, comprising Mr. J. R. Land (Super intendent of Telegraphs). J. Taliauli (Registrar of the Supreme Court) ana J. Hapa (Interpreter in the Police Dept.), to prepare an Illuminated Address for presentation to Queen Salote on October 11 next, the 21st anniversary of her cor onation, as a mark of their respect and loyalty.

One interesting feature of the Address, which will be signed by all Government officials and employees, is its covering— an ilustration of the Koka tree (bischof fia javanica), embossed in gold on a red leather cover, gold and red being the dominant colours of the Tongan Royal Standard. Also printed on the cover is the phrase “Sitakafalu ki he Koka”— literally, “To turn the back to the Koka

tree . This phrase has historical signifi cance tor the present royal line—the Tui Kanokubolu, who took their title from the sacred soil of Kanokubolu in Hihifo, Tongatabu.

According to tradition, when Gata (the first Tui Kanokubolu—about 1610— and son of the Tui Ha’atakalaua, Mougatoga, and Tohu’ia, a chief woman of Samoa, daughter of the chief of Safaata in Upolu) was invested with the title at the Kava Ceremony at Bagai, the sacred Mala’e (Sacrificial Ground) of the Tm Kanokubolu, he sat with his back against a Koka tree, which stood on the Mala’e. Since then it had been the custom strictly observed at every subsequent in vestiture of the title, for the person in vested to sit with his or her back against the Koka tree at Bagai (“Sitakafalu ki he Koka”) during the Kava Ceremony. Thus is the origin of the phrase which Tongan poets and orators use when they sing of the wisdom and might of the Tui Kano kubolu dynasty.

Moreover, the rise of the Tui Kano kubolu to power could be traced from the wording of the phrase. Like numerous other words in the Tongan language, ‘ sitakafalu” (“to turn the back”) was applicable only to the Tui Toga, Sacred King of all Tonga; “situ’a” is its equiva lent used by chiefs and commoners.

Originally, the phrase was “Situ’a ki he Koka , but when the Tui Kanokubolu assumed power as the supreme ruler of all Tonga, he also acquired the singular privilege of having special words used when ,pP? k , en of - Consequently, the chiefly “sitakafalu” took the place of the common “situ’a” in the phrase.

As a matter of history, it is interest ing to know that the Royal Throne of Tonga contains pieces of the original Koka tree at Bagai.