The book was written by Cathy Small and was published in 1997. It gives an ethnographic account of the Tongan people and their migration patterns to date. In the book, Cathy doers not concentrate on factors that may have affected the Tongan people in their migration but cites the migration and how it later helped the people of Tonga. According to Small migration is one of the most significant reason for the changes that have been witnessed in Tonga for the past thirty years, and the migration is felt by the people of Tonga to date. She gives an account of the migration of a single community to other Western countries and US and later back to Tonga highlighting the problems and advantages that the people endured due to the migration.

Migration has helped and hurt Tonga and its people. Due to the desire of the people to help their family, and community Small reckons that the Tongans left their country in the pursuit of a better life. Among the advantages of their travels was better education for them and their families back in Tonga, wage opportunities and remittances as well as they returned with goods from their travels. The Tongans also enjoyed material prosperity, and international experience is important in establishing new ties with other countries. Small is, however, critical of the many problems that the Tongans faced in America among which were loss of identity and cultural practices, loss of relationships, people living close to the poverty line as they send the money they got back home to their families. Small is, however, encouraged that the Tongan culture of love for family does not relent, and they always remembered their people back home. The migrants’ help the people back at home with the money needed to keep up with their lives and they also send them goods and remittances from their travels abroad. This improved the economy of Tonga to a great extent, and the majority of the Tonga people were able to live better lives. It also expanded the scope and view of the Tongans as they were able to have other people’s opinions and sample their cultures as well. The help caused some of the people to be over-reliant on their families abroad, and Small reckons that they would flood the Post office to send a letter to their loved ones in other countries.

In Tavake, the family is surrounded by a new culture of other developed and westernized culture. The family earns a little money that is only for subsistence needs and therefore they cannot save or invest. They are ridden with the burden of finding a job and at the same time acclimatizing with the new culture and norms of the new community. This is identical to the challenges that the families in the Voyages face when they first arrive in the United States. Tavake and his father are tasked with providing for their family a challenge that is also similar to the migrants in the voyages such that they cannot live well above the poverty line. The family members are expectant of what they bring, and they strive to make their families’ lives better. The generational and cultural gap between Tavake and his father is evident as his father has a proper and well-grounded cultural influence a factor that is lacking in Tavake. These were problems that the migrants in the Voyage also faced as they could not establish a cultural and generation balance when they first landed in America. Canned beef and exporting crops in the film are a depiction of the difference in the two cultures and how one country is developed as opposed to the other. The film maker was trying to clearly illuminate the problems that migrants face when they go to USA and how they manage to conquer and grind through their challenges to help their families.

Should one let their culture define them, or should they define their own culture?