Tonga
Nanna Aspholm-Flick
My beach-chair relates to “the friendly islands” Tonga, the oldest existing Polynesian kingdom, some 2300 km (= 1286 nautical miles) north of New Zealand. During his Second Pacific Voyage Captain Cook landed on the Tongan islands on 2.10.1773. He felt the warm welcome and gave Tonga its nice nickname. Tonga counts some 100.000 inhabitants. The sun rises 13 hours earlier in Tonga than here in Mannheim, Germany.
The Tonga flag – in use since 4.11.1975 – resembles the Swiss one. The over 150 Tonga-islands, most of which are uninhabited, share maritime borders with American Samoa (USA), Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia (France), Kiribati and Samoa. White palm tree-beaches and coral reefs are everywhere, also tropical rainforests are part of the topography. Flying foxes, that eat fruit and nectar of flowers, live in Tonga and they can grow to measure 40cm.
Anthropologists believe the Lapita-Culture excavations in Tonga to prove the existence of island-peoples already for 5000 years.
King Tupou reins Tonga today together with a democratically elected parliament.
The colonial history of the island-kingdom includes both German and British periods. Please read about the “Tripartite Convention 1899“, “Samoa-Vertrag des Deutschen Reichs” or “Deutsche Schutzgebiete in der Südsee“ and „deutsche Südseeinseln“ on www.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The country Tonga fell in my “crafts-hands” in a raffle. What a great way to learn about a – for me – new country! I took part in BUGA- Heilbronn in Sept 2019 with an exhibition and workshops. I invited local textile-makers to join me, and we loved it. As a textile-member of BdK (Bund der Kunsthandwerker Baden-Württemberg e.V.) www.kunsthandwerk.de I was qualified to join this United Nations General Assembly – 193 Seats – project. I was born in Finland but now live in Stuttgart. My work relates to the interculturality of textiles, the “reading and interpretation” of fabrics, iconography, patterns, making-techniques, etc. My sturdy chair with a stitched-on beach-towel hopefully invites you – valued BUGA-visitor – to take a break and have a seat, to relax and to contemplate the United Nations. The Member States, like Tonga, participate in and act through the political body, the General Assembly. It serves as a unique forum for multilateral discussions in international issues covered by the UN Charter.
