INCLUDES FESTIVE VIDEO | Here’s a look at this outer East Portland festival, held in Gateway Discovery Park, on a warm summer afternoon …
In the Hazelwood neighborhood, Gateway Discovery Park is alive with activity, as the Tonga Day Festival gets underway.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
An afternoon of celebration was underway on Saturday, August 12, at the “Tonga Day Festival” in the Gateway District, at Gateway Discovery Park.
Shaded from the hot summer sun under large tents, participants gathered to enjoy ceremonial dancing, singing, and other entertainment. Attendees visited some of the many vendors and booths set up by governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations.
Standing in the center of a group of women, in the Chuuk (also known as the Truk Lagoon area) sewing class he organized, it’s Tongan Community Representative Kolini Fusitu’a.
“This festival started back in 2017, when the Tongan community reached out to me and asked if we could have an event, in a Portland park, without being charged for it,” Tonga Day organizer Kolini Fusitu’a told East Portland News at the event.
See highlights of the Tonga Day Festival here, in our video:
“When we first started, we just were looking for a space where we could celebrate our community and our culture – you know, get together as a community and have a traditional barbecue,” Fusitu’a elaborated.
Dance groups from all over the greater metropolitan Portland area arrive to entertain at the festival.
“Honored members” are in invited to sit at the front table in the tent during performances.
“As we kept reaching to the City of Portland, and to the people in our communities, the celebration we planned kept growing bigger and bigger,” Fusitu’a explained. “By continuing to work at it, we’ve elevated our gathering to a whole different level – to being the ‘Tonga Day Festival’ you see here!”
Music continued to play as dancers, in traditional celebration apparel, entertained elders seated at the front table, and all of the others under the expansive canopy.
Before going on stage, the Cherry Park Young Women pose for our camera.
Some of the vendors sold “ta?ovala”, a mat woven of fibers that is part of the Tongan traditional dress. Others offered jewelry, and other culturally-specific items.
The scent of meats, grilling over live coals, enticed guests to gather for foods prepared in the traditional Tongan way.
This motorized rotisserie cooks meat all day long to feed the hungry celebrants.
“Our Festival helps fulfill our community’s needs, because we want to have a space in the public arena, where our community is the highlight of the event!” asserted Fusitu’a, who is a Program Coordinator at IRCO (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization), one of the festival’s sponsors.
“We do take part in other multi-cultural celebrations around Portland,” Fusitu’a went on. “But, here,, it is our people who are being highlighted – who are ‘on the main stage’, as we play our music, do are dancing, eat our food – and show our neighbors what we’re all about.”
Many exhibitors and vendors presented to guests at the Tonga Day Festival.
After he pulled away for a moment to greet community members, Fusitu’a continued, “When different nationalities get together, you get unity; and unity is the important thing to us. This means learning to be accepting of others as we break down barriers; this is where we welcome diversity, and living proof of oneness and unity.”
© 2023 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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