Ep. 53: Saints and Sinners with Moana 'Ulu'ave-Hafoka

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


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