This episode features poet, author, and intellectual Moana ‘Ulu‘ave-Hafoka. The catalyst for this discussion was a recently released YouTube video by former Mormon author and YouTuber Alyssa Grenfell, titled Tonga is 60% Mormon??????, which has currently been viewed more than 200k times since being posted. This video references one of Moana’s articles, so as nerds of Tonga, Indigeneity, and Mormonism, we wanted to add further complexity to some of what was shared on that platform. We discuss nuance, blurred boundaries, historical and cultural context, as well as Mormon specificity, and even larger structures and systems of power. We shift mid-way through this episode to engage with Ryan Coogler’s film Sinners (spoilers). We discuss a variety of symbols in the film, including, the global impact of Black (African-American) culture, race, global Indigeneity, diaspora, spirituality, religion, sacred time-space, and more.
References:
To be Young, Mormon, and Tongan by Moana ‘Ulu‘ave-Hafoka
Kinikini, Lea Lani, Kepa Maumau, Moana Uluave-Hafoka, (2021).“Raise Your Pen: A Critical Race Essay on Truth and Justice”. In Reppin: Youth Studies in Oceania. Ed. Keith Camacho. University of Washington Press.
Tonga is 60% Mormon?????? By Alyssa Grenfell [Original video title listed, it was later changed to The Mormon Colonization of Tonga (60%???)]
Church and State in Tonga: The Wesleyan Methodist Missionaries and Political Development, 1822-1875 by Sione Lātūkefu
The “Glocalization” of Mormon Studies by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye
Letter to Tangata Va ‘Ofi in the Tongan Mormon Family by Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu
The Mana of the Tongan Everyday: Tongan Grief and Mourning, Patriarchal Violence and Remembering Va by Fuifuilupe ‘Alilia Niumeitolu
Comment on Sarah Newcomb and Robert Joseph Indigenous Perspectives on the Meanings of ‘Lamanite’ by Tēvita O. Ka‘ili
Marking Indigeneity: The Tongan Art of Sociospatial Relations by Tēvita O. Ka‘ili
Tongan Crip Gang: A Tongan American Identity by ‘Esiteli Hafoka
Oceania: Revisualizing the Pacific in American Religious History by ‘Esiteli Hafoka
Withering as a Rose: Tongan Indigeneity, Mormonism and the Curse of the Lamanites by S. Ata Siu‘ulua
Historical and Contemporary Representation of Kava by Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Sione M. U. H. Funaki
Mormon masculinity, family, and kava in the Pacific by Arcia Tecun and S. Ata Siu‘ulua
Tā, Vā, and Moana: Temporality, Spatiality, and Indigeneity by Hūfanga, ‘Okusitino Māhina
Holographic Epistemology: Native Common Sense by Manulani Aluli Meyer
In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition by Fred Moten
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Davis
A Philosophical Look at Black Music by Lewis Gordon
