Faikava — A Tongan Literary Journal - 1978 - Issues 1

Reclaiming the Voice: The Tongan Literary Renaissance

Faikava — A Tongan Literary Journal

Edited and published by Barbara Hau’ofa

Government Printer, Nukuʻalofa (Tonga)

Issue 1. 1 April 1978

Small Octavo pamphlet

The first issue of the first literary journal devoted entirely to Tongan authors, marking a decisive moment in the emergence of a post-colonial Pacific literary voice articulated on its own terms.

The name Faikava was chosen for its symbolism of the oral and social tradition of Tonga and the wider pacific. With a strong oral storytelling tradition, the name evokes “A group of people gathered around the kava bowl, speaking and dreaming, stretching their minds and trading old tales and new gossip, facts and fiction. This is the spirit and the intent of the Journal Faikava: to provide a forum for writers, poets and critics to make their work accessible to a wider audience”

Faikava includes early work by Futa Helu, Epeli Hau’ofa and Konelio Helu Thaman, figures who would become central to Pacific philosophy, literature, and education. The journal was conceived and published by Barbara Hauʻofa in response to the absence of local publishing platforms capable of expressing Tongan perspectives without traditional colonial frameworks.

Scarce: few institutional holdings recorded and rarely encountered in the trade.

A foundational document of modern Pacific literature and self-authored cultural expression.

£750