The Ancient Royal Tombs of Lapaha, Tonga: Community and World Heritage

World Heritage 34 papers World Heritage in a Sea of Islands Pacific 2009 Programme World Heritage in a Sea of Islands Pacific 2009 Programme UNESCO World Heritage Centre 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France Tel : 33 (0)1 42 68 15 71 Fax : 33 (0)1 45 68 55 70 E-mail : wh-info@unesco.org http://whc.unesco.org © UNESCO 2012 All rights reserved ISBN: 978-982-225-015-2 (Print version) ISBN: 978-982-225-016-9 (Electronic version) The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the organization. Editing: Anita Smith, La Trobe University, Australia Coordination of the World Heritage Papers Series: Vesna Vujicic-Lugassy, UNESCO World Heritage Centre Graphic Design: Original design by Recto Verso Design/Layout: Warren Field Front cover photo: The Rock Islands of Palau inscribed on the World Heritage List as a mixed property in 2012. © Stuart Chape Printed in Thailand APIA/12/037-200 contents F O REWO RD Kishore Rao, DIRECTOR OF THE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CENTRE SECTIO N 1 SECTION 2 Introduction: World Heritage in the Pacific Islands A Sea of Islands: Diverse Values and Interconnected Histories The World Heritage Pacific 2009 Programme Anita Smith Thematic Frameworks for the cultural values of the Pacific Ian Lilley and Christophe Sand ................................................................................... 2 ................................................................................. 22 Excerpt from The Pacific Appeal to the World Heritage Committee Pacific Islands World Heritage Tentative Lists Paul Dingwall ................................................................................... 2 ................................................................................. 28 The World Heritage Pacific 2009 Programme: addressing the aims of the global strategy in the Pacific region Giovanni Boccardi Developing the Solomon Islands Tentative List Salamat Ali Tabbasum ................................................................................. 12 World Heritage Convention and Intangible Heritage Convention in the Pacific Akatsuki Takahashi ................................................................................. 16 ................................................................................. 34 The Cook Islands Justina Nicholas and Ngatuaine Maui ................................................................................. 39 Natural World Heritage in Oceania: Challenges and Opportunities Stuart Chape ................................................................................. 40 Bikini Atoll: A small remote atoll of global significance Nicole Baker ................................................................................. 46 Levuka, Fiji: The Heritage of Culture Contact in the Pacific Anita Smith, Sipiriano Nemani and Anaseini Kalougata ................................................................................. 52 Transnational Values in the development of a World Heritage nomination for the Sacred site of Taputapuätea/Te Po, Valley of Öpoa, French Polynesia Ariihau Richard Tuheiava and Anita Smith ................................................................................. 54 Yapese Stone Money: A Transboundary Serial Nomination from Micronesia ................................................................................. 57 World Heritage 34 papers SECTIO N 3 World Heritage and Community in the Pacific Community and governance in the World Heritage property of East Rennell Kasia Gabrys and Mike Heywood ................................................................................. 60 Australia Capacity Building Support for East Rennell World Heritage Area 2007-2013 International Heritage Section, Government of Australia ................................................................................. 66 Community as the First C: Conservation and Development through Tourism at Chief Roi Mata’s Domain, Vanuatu Meredith Wilson, Chris Ballard, Richard Matanik and Topie Warry ................................................................................. 68 The Ancient Royal Tombs of Lapaha, Tonga: Community and World Heritage Geoffrey Clark, Christian Reepmeyer and Nivaleti Melekiola ................................................................................. 74 Community Participatory Approach to Heritage Conservation in Samoa Elisaia Talouli and Tuiolo Schuster ................................................................................. 78 Samoan Women: Preservers of their cultural heritage Luagalau Fo’isagaasina Eteuati Shon ................................................................................. 82 SECTION 4 Building Capacity for World Heritage in the Pacific Building Regional Capacity for World Heritage in the Pacific Islands: toward a Pacific Heritage Hub Anita Smith and Meretui Ratunabuabua ................................................................................. 90 ICOMOS Pasifika ................................................................................. 95 Safeguarding Nan Madol, Federated States of Micronesia Diana Roma ................................................................................. 96 Building institutional and community capacity for World Heritage in Papua New Guinea: The Kuk Early Agricultural Site and Beyond Tim Denham ................................................................................. 98 The Kokoda Initiative, Papua New Guinea Australian Kokoda Taskforce Secretariat ............................................................................... 104 UNESCO’s World Heritage Programme for Small Island Developing States and the Global Strategy Ron van Oers ............................................................................... 108 Niue: a small island state in West Polynesia Moira Enetama ............................................................................... 112 Author biodata ............................................................................... 114 Published within the World Heritage Series ............................................................................... 116 3 The Ancient Royal Tombs of Lapaha: Community and World Heritage Geoffrey Clark and Christian Reepmeyer, Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Australia Nivaleti Melekiola, Lapaha Council Inc., Lapaha, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga Lapaha is a village community of around 2200 people in the Hahake (eastern) district of Tongatapu in the Kingdom of Tonga. It is the location of an ancient royal dynasty headed by the holder of the paramount Tu’i Tonga title, which held political authority over the dispersed islands of the Tonga Group during the 2nd millennium AD and influenced other parts of the Pacific such as Samoa, east Fiji and Wallis/’Uvea Island. The royal tombs of the Tu’i Tonga were included on Tonga’s Tentative List in 2007, and this paper outlines community involvement in the cultural heritage of Lapaha including recent progress on the nomination of the ancient burial structures to the World Heritage List. Community management of Lapaha’s heritage sites is central to their preservation with continuing use of the ancient tombs for burial of senior title holders involving ceremony and ritual dating to the Tu’i Tonga chiefdom. The traditional burial practices demonstrate the continuing cultural significance of the royal tombs to Tongan society, which is strongly hierarchical and consists of kings, chiefs and commoners. The tombs are also emblematic of the ancient Tongan kingdom that was the only Pacific society to extend significantly to other archipelagos and islands. Chiefly precinct of the Tu’i Tonga Over centuries the landscape of Lapaha was densely built up through the construction of the stone-lined tombs (langi) of the paramount chiefs, an administrative area located on reclaimed land on the edge of the lagoon, occupation areas used by groups from other Pacific Islands, along with prehistoric roads, canoe docks, ditches and chiefly bathing wells. The number, scale and condition of ancient sites represents a daunting cultural heritage challenge for a small and dispersed island nation. The centerpiece of the Tu’i Tonga ‘capital’ were the royal tombs that signaled the prestige of individual chiefs, with the tombs collectively manifesting the power and authority of the ruling lineage that held control of Tonga from AD 1200 until AD 1865. The tombs were built of beach rock slabs quarried from coastal locations throughout Tonga, 74 and are among the most spectacular prehistoric constructions in the Pacific with individual stone blocks weighing up to 50 tons (Clark et al. 2008). The stone-walled tombs are part of the contemporary cultural landscape as the tombs are used today by the senior title holders of Lapaha as they have been for centuries. The tomb area was also the scene of the annual First Fruits (inasi) ceremony where tribute from throughout the Tonga archipelago and neighboring Pacific Islands was brought to Lapaha. The close connection at Lapaha between the tangible heritage and the intangible culture is common in many parts of the Pacific, but is particularly strong at Lapaha where the scale and density of monuments in the chiefly precinct combines with hereditary roles relating to the Tu’i Tonga era that continue to structure existing community organization and behavior (Figure 1). Community organisation In 2007, the Lapaha community established the Lapaha Council Inc., which was the first representative village council in Tonga to combine democratic selection of council members with elements of traditional governance. The move toward a town council arrangement began in the 1980s under the traditional owner, and gathered pace in 2006 with funding to support the new governance structure from the Commonwealth Secretariat. The adoption of a Council structure was made to engage directly with policy makers and donors to improve community conditions and was not associated with the potential WH nomination of the site. Nonetheless, the Lapaha Council Inc’s. mission statement highlights the importance of cultural heritage to community well being: The people of Lapaha, the ancient capital of Tonga, shall preserve and enhance its pride and identity of its royal and cultural heritage through improving its physical, spiritual, social and cultural environment. Lapaha Council Inc. community presentation 2009. The Lapaha Council committee comprises 33 members: three members from each of the six land blocks, each village committee and subcommittee contributing one member, WO RLD HERI TAG E I N A SEA OF ISLAN DS: PACIF IC 2009 PROG RAM M E 3 Map of Lapaha showing the main Tu’i Tonga sites. Royal tombs (‘J’ structures), area of reclaimed land, ditches, canoe wharf and harbour (partially infilled). 75 3 The Ancient Royal Tombs of Lapaha: Community and World Heritage the traditional land owner (Honourable Kalaniuvalu-Fotofili), Patron (Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu-Fotofili) and the Town Officer (Mr Nivaleti Melekiola). Physical sites of the Tu’i Tonga era are managed by the Council Standing committees dealing with Development and Environment (Lands subcommittee) and Information and Research (History subcommittee). Within Lapaha the division of land is considered by the Lands subcommittee and if cultural sites are known, the land owner is asked to preserve these prior to land registration. As of 2011, all land owners had agreed to look after (i.e. not destroy or damage) cultural sites on their property. A high level of voluntary action regarding the preservation of cultural sites is consistent with the results of a 2009 Lapaha Council survey which revealed that 90 per cent of respondents highly valued Lapaha’s historical sites. Community management of the monuments and prehistoric structures of Lapaha is important as there are limited resources for implementation of the two national laws currently regarding the management of Tonga’s tangible cultural heritage. The Parks and Reserves Act 1976 is administered by the Ministry of Lands, Survey, Natural Resources and Environment (MLSNRE), which has responsibility for cultural sites in all ‘parks’ and ‘reserves’. The majority of royal tombs are in the hereditary estate of the traditional land owner (The Act of the Constitution of Tonga 1875) and are not explicitly the responsibility of the MLSNRE. The second law is The Preservation of Objects of Archaeological Interest Act 1969, which is administered by the Tonga Traditions Committee (TTC). The TTC has made significant contributions to the collection of traditional history and documentation of Tonga’s intangible culture (Wood-Ellem, 2001:272), but the Act does not provide the direct means of preserving or managing archaeological sites (Mahina 2003). The implementation of an effective heritage site management programme is made difficult in Tonga, as is the case in many parts of the Pacific, by the limited human and financial resources (Mahina 2003; Smith and Jones, 2007), particularly of large and complex monumental sites like those in Lapaha. World Heritage at Lapaha Tonga became a signatory to the World Heritage Convention (1972) in 2004. Despite Tonga’s limited cultural heritage resources the promotion of the World Heritage Convention and placement in 2007 of Lapaha’s royal tombs on the Tentative List has been important in creating a focus for heritage activity at Lapaha. The Lapaha Council Inc. and the Tongan government have engaged with foreign researchers and heritage experts to better understand the World Heritage concept, and to think about how sites of the Tu’i Tonga chiefdom can be managed and preserved by, and for, the community and Tonga. Given the relative lack of capacity the preferred route to advance a WH site nomination has been to assemble an informal network composed of local leaders, academics 76 and government officials overseen by the Lapaha Council Inc. This allows for local management of the sites and for knowledge and information about World Heritage to circulate appropriately through community structures. Significant actions to date include an MOU (2010) between the Lapaha Council Inc., Tonga Traditions Committee and The Australian National University to work together on the WH cultural sites dossier, rezoning of residential land around several tombs to preserve several sites and enlarge buffer zones, the relocation of the Catholic Cemetery to reduce damage to prehistoric tombs caused by a high density of modern burials, and the restriction of new interments in ancient tombs to appropriate titleholders to maintain traditional burial practices. Local community involvement in the nomination process is also exemplified by an oral history project. As land blocks are generally owned in perpetuity by a particular family much historical information about the cultural landscape has been retained by Lapaha residents, but it is dispersed through the community and is often specific to a single location or land block. In 2011, the Lapaha community began a project to record the oral histories of Lapaha with financial support from the Australian Government. The information will be held by the community and will provide material to support the connection between the physical remains of the Tu’i Tonga chiefdom and the contemporary community in the WH nomination. A pressing issue at Lapaha is an urgent need to restore several of the largest tombs that have deteriorated significantly over centuries from wall damage caused by erosion and vegetation growth with a funding proposal to restore the tombs submitted by the MOU participants in 2011. Conclusion The monuments at Lapaha speak to a time when the local inhabitants were preeminent in Tonga and the region, and the Lapaha community is proud of its unbroken connection with the Tu’i Tonga chiefdom. The opportunity to promote and preserve the tangible cultural heritage of Lapaha through WH nomination coincided, fortuitously, with the traditional leaders and Lapaha Council Inc’s. goal of using cultural heritage to strengthen community identity and an international research project on the physical remains of the Tu’i Tonga chiefdom. Progress with the nomination has been made in many areas with issues of cultural heritage actively managed by the Lapaha Council Inc. Greater community involvement with WH either through attending ICOMOS/IUCN/UNESCO events or participating in local and international heritage workshops/meetings would actively support site management and lead to a deeper understanding of the World Heritage Convention (i.e. Smith 2011). Increased heritage support for communities involved in nominating sites would greatly benefit the region’s cultural properties and the preservation of future sites on the World Heritage List by increasing the local heritage expertise in Pacific Island nations. WO RLD HERI TAG E I N A SEA OF ISLAN DS: PACIF IC 2009 PROG RAM M E 3 Preparation by the undertaker clan for the burial of the late Kalaniuvalu in April 2010 in the tomb Paepae’o’telea, reputed to have been built by the 29th Tu’i Tonga Uluakimata (Telea). © Geoff Clarke References Clark, G., D. Burley, and T. Murray 2008. Monumentality in the Development of the Tongan Maritime Chiefdom. Antiquity 82(318): pp. 994-1004. Kaeppler, A.L. 1991. Me’etu’upaki and Tapaki, Paddle Dances of Tonga and Futuna, West Polynesia. Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 33: pp. 347-345. Mahina, K.U. 2003. Koloa Tukufakaholo: The Management of Tonga’s Cultural Heritage. Unpublished MA thesis, Victoria University, Wellington. Smith, A. 2011. East Rennell World Heritage Site: Misunderstandings, Inconsistencies and Opportunities in the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention in the Pacific Islands. International Journal of Heritage Studies 17(6): pp. 592-607 UNESCO. 1972. The World Heritage Convention. Paris. UNESCO (Asia). 2009. Hoi An Protocols for Best Conservation Practice in Asia: Professional Guidelines for Assuring an Preserving the Authenticity of Heritage Sites in the Context of the Cultures of Asia. Adopted by the Asia-Oceania Region at the ICOMOS General Assembly in Xi’an, China in 2005, UNESCO Bangkok, Bangkok. Wood-Ellem, E. 2001. Queen Salote. The Story of an Era 1900-1965. Auckland University Press, Auckland. Smith, A. and Jones, K. 2007. Cultural Landscapes of the Pacific Islands: ICOMOS Thematic Study. International Secretariat of ICOMOS, Paris <http://whc.unesco.org/ uploads/news/documents/news-437-1.pdf>. 77