The Queen's Influence

(singing in foreign language) - [Narrator] Women jugglers are rare throughout the world, except in the Asian Pacific Island group of Tonga, which is not far from Fiji.

An entire country of nothing but women jugglers, how did that happen?

I'm a professional juggler on an adventure to document the history of Hiko, a Polynesian culture where object manipulation of tui tui nuts is an ancient tradition passed down from women to girls and where no men juggle.

I'm thankful, the tradition is still alive today.

Come on ..Take it right now!

(women laughing) - Everywhere I go, every girl, every woman, knows Hiko, knows how to juggle.

I can hand the tui tui nuts that I carry with me in the back of my scooter and hand them to anybody, girl or woman and they will light up and they will begin juggling two or three, sometimes four or five.

All of the history is just oral.

There is no written history, everything is passed down from generation to generation.

Part of this journey is just finding out what is Hiko?

What does that tradition mean?

How did it evolve?

Why do all the women and girls juggle tui tui nuts?

How did it become a dance at the Queen Salote College?

Was it a competition at the schools?

Why is it just girls?

Why is it just women?

I guess that's all part of recording the story of Hiko that is not recorded and finding what the story is.

(bright upbeat music) - [Woman] You'll know it, most of the tourists, they come to Tonga, they say about these people, they're so friendly.

The people here in Tonga is special.

- [Woman] You can see Tonga Island in the world map, but it's a little dot and this is our paradise.

(waves crashing) - [Woman] There are about 150 islands of the Kingdom of Tonga, and only about 36 are inhabited.

(speaking in Tongan) (leaves rustling) (Paprika-Host)] What's the name of the tree?

- Tui tui.

[Paprika] Did you know she could juggle?

- [Man] Yes.

- [Paprika ] You did?

- [Man] Yes, every girl they can do the juggle, the Hiko.

(bright upbeat music) - [Woman] In Tonga we would never had thought about that being a special thing, we would have thought that was just the normal that everybody on earth knew how to juggle that way.

(Woman)- I just carry on what it has been traditionally done here.

(women laughing) (rooster crowing) (News Reporter) An American television juggler and performance artist is in Nuku’alofa researching the unique history and development of Tongan juggling.

- I think you're very unique in the entire world, there's no one like you.

And I don't know if you know how unusual the Hiko is and the Tongan jugglers are here because only girls do it.

So there's an abundance of women jugglers here, and it's beautiful.

(slow paced music) (girls laughing) - Where did you learn to do Hiko?

- When I was small, I think six, seven years.

- [Paprika-Host ] Did you have competitions or was it just play?

- Just play like this, we play and we learn, it's Hiko.

- As far as I know, the Hiko or the juggling was a game done by girls.

- Every school and every college here in Tonga they do competition and then including the juggle.

- [Paprika-Host] A game, a competition, a song, a dance, it all revolves around throwing tui tui nuts into the air in a circular fashion called a shower, where juggling four to five is the norm, and 10 is the legend.

- The green fruit itself, they're the fruits that we use for juggling.

(slow paced music) - [Paprika] What are you doing?

- We're weaving leaves for the roof, you can see that, for the rain, and it's also for decoration.

- When I was a little girl, we used to do Hiko.

I learned when I was in primary school, I used to compete with my friends.

So there's two in the right and one in the left and then you go like this, two, three, four, and then you start juggling.

I started juggling with two and then go up to three and then four, but you know, I'm a big girl now, but I'm not really good at four now (laughs).

- We learn it from our elders, it's more like activity, family activity for us at home, we do compete each other and then we start juggling and counting and- - Who's gonna be the highest, who's gonna go higher when you juggle.

- [Paprika] Yeah, and is it who can juggle the longest as well?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, and it's fun, it's fun for us though.

- Way of juggle better, is like this.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow.

How I'm so mad, let's compete, one, two, three, go.

(bright upbeat music) (women cheering) (slow paced music) - Here in Tonga, we play Hiko since we are kids.

Hiko is passed from generation to another generation.

They just learn it from their mother in their own village, from their grandparents, from their grandmother, but it's very unknown, where does Hiko come from?

We don't know.

- [Man] No one in Tonga nowadays knew exactly where Hiko originated from.

According to the elders, it is Polynesian, but according to our tradition, it started from the underworld.

The head of the underworld is a lady, a blind lady her name is Hikule’o.

And whenever Hikule’o came onto the surface of the earth, she find different girls, still outside their houses.

What she did is she snatches their eyes and then take it back to the water which is the place she stayed and gave it to all the souls there, so the soul there will use the eyeballs for juggling.

One day there was a soul escape from Haveluloto and he relayed the story to the Tongan people, so they start juggling.

I don't think that it is true, but I think that's how they try to make sense of where Hiko came from.

It's quite clear that nobody knows where Hiko comes from.

There was a transition from old religion, to the new religion that Christianity came with, so everybody dropped everything and we forgot about Hiko there and then, we only remember only in stories.

- [Woman] Three, two, one, toss.

(metal clanging) - I started going to regional juggling festivals in 1999, and I would say at the time the ratio of men to women at the festival would be 50 men to one woman.

There are a lot of jugglers here, I'd say maybe a hundred, 150 and it would still probably be one woman to maybe 20 men.

There just aren't that many female juggling performers.

In Tonga, they actually juggle a pattern that we call the shower, which is where you pass one ball to a hand and then throw it back, so it's a constant pass, throw, pass, throw.

The women there will do anywhere from three to five with legends of women doing seven or 10.

Now this just really blows me away because I consider the shower to be more difficult than the typical American pattern, which is right-hand throw, left-hand throw, right-hand throw left-hand throw, everything is the same, and the pattern is slower.

To approach juggling from the more difficult pattern is a really interesting perspective.

- I start with one ball in each hand, toss, pass, cross.

- The shower pattern, I think it's easier to conceptualize because you're concentrating on one hand throwing.

You're throwing with one hand catching with the other and tossing left-hand or right-hand.

But I think it's even harder to juggle in a shower.

I think it's more difficult because your throws have to be very accurate, you have to have very accurate throws and they have to be high enough.

So the more nuts we'll say, that you can juggle the higher you have to throw them.

So if you're doing four, it's a lot harder than three.

If you're doing five, it's a lot harder than four.

So it's having very accurate throws and being consistent.

So it's really, shower's difficult.

- The world record is eight, that seems almost impossible (chuckles).

That means that the pattern has to be really high, really, really high and that takes years of practice.

The fact that there's a country with only women jugglers is kind of a utopia.

It is very fascinating that it's only women and that it's happening today, and that they don't know about like any of the other juggling patterns, I can't believe it exists.

- I was starting doing the Hiko when I was 10 in a primary school, in lunchtime we'd play.

(slow paced music) (women laughing) We used to climb in this tree when we're in primary, we call it a tui tui in Tongan.

When the nut is going old, is to be like that, and we use this to make our oil in Tonga.

- It's like a perfume smelling, it's smelling good.

- We can make it to chewing together with the nut and we make our body wash. - Most of our home back there in Tonga, we have a tui tui tree there, and it helps us a lot 'cause we use it as soap and makes the Tongan skin very beautiful and very scented.

If we chew it or mixing it together with some other special leaves, like spices, but it's good for the body.

(women laughing) And when it comes dry, we take out the out the hard shells, we collect all the white stuff inside, and then we start collecting what we want to mix with it, and we start chewing it.

- That's the tui tui and the Mohokoi, and cinnamon.

There's all these thing, we make it for the Tongan oil.

- You just put all or a little bit of it in.

- [Woman] If we use this and then we go stand on the sun, change the color of my skin to brown.

- My face will turn bright red.

(women laughing) Moist, feels very nurturing, smells good.

What we've made is a balm and it came from the tui tui that we were juggling.

This is what was taken out of the shell and the flowers, and what were the flowers called?

- Mohokoi.

- Mohokoi flowers.

(rooster crowing) - One, two, three.

(singing traditional Hiko song) - The first time I've heard the rhyme was at primary school in Nuku'alofa but the language is so different from the Tonga language of today.

Some of the words we don't understand.

- Those words are not Tongan at all.

Where did those words come from?

What kind of words are they?

There are some theories, some of the older Tongan women might have some theories about that.

(slow paced music) - The word is a mixture of different culture, it is the history that we gained from Southeast Asia, it's the origin of the Tongan people.

And they think that that words was composed by people, once they migrate from one place to another.

They came from place to place and they end up in Tonga.

And by the time they brought the words and they put them together.

- I heard from an old man in between 70 and 80 years old, and he said that the words of the juggling or the Hiko was the counting system of the Tongan very ancient time.

- These days we are counting one, two, three, four, (speaks in foreign language), but in the olden days, when they do the Hiko games, they're just chanting the words.

(speaking in foreign language) And then it goes the last line, if you're still on, then you win the game.

- Instead of saying one, two, we say the words (speaks in foreign language) up to the (speaks in foreign language), and that's when you start again.

(speaking in foreign language) - I think Fuofua means the first time doing something.

Fuofua...like you carry them around.

It might be related to the Hiko, it's like if you juggling something around.

- peau toki he ʻanaua...'anaua to me is like meditating or like my mind is thinking of something higher, 'cause I'm looking up and throwing the Hiko and the tui tui and it says Faifai peau fepaki.. -Faifai peau fepaki.. that's when the two tui tui they crush to each other.

- manatuki ..manatuki..mana means to chew, and tuki means crushing it to make it soft I apply it to the flesh off the tui tui, some other words up to now, I don't know the meaning.

(Hiko Song) - It was passed unspoken, it was oratory, they pass on from one generation to another, and I think that's why it's different, but still the meaning is yet to be found.

(speaking in Tongan) This is the call of The Friendly Islands.. Radio Tonga of Nuku'alofa time is four minutes before 11, 11 o'clock on top of the hour would be our news headlines.

(slow paced music) - In 1972, there was the first South Pacific Festival of Arts held in Suva, Fiji.

And that's the first time I heard Hiko and we did Hiko juggling at school, but I thought it was just a game.

So that was the first time I've seen the girls juggling exhibition of culture.

Putting the Hiko in dance, it was done by the Queen Salote College.

(singing in Tongan) They put the words in to music, and then the girls dancing.

- In 1972, I was one of the students who performed the Hiko.

That was the first time we put movement into the Hiko song.

We'd get together, some of the teachers and myself, and we create the dance of the Hiko.

And because we didn't know the meaning of the words, we just do the movement according to what the actual juggling is done.

Swaying around to get the nut from where it went, that's what we showed in the dance.

And since then the college they have the Hiko dance is their main item, it's still going on there.

(singing in Tongan) When you see the Hiko dance is done anywhere, it came to your mind that is Queen Salote College item.

I'm proud of what the college was doing putting dance into the Hiko so that it can be brought along years after year.

(slow paced guitar music) - Most of the people know that in Queen Salote College we do a lot with the community and the church and the royal family.

These days, we have male teachers who can really sing and put together a string band.

We had the Lali, a Tongan wooden drum, it beats with the rhyme too.

So the Lali and guitar and then the students are singing them in their own parts.

(singing in Tongan) There are dances, we do the movements according to how we do it and there are some girls sitting down doing the real juggling.

That is what we're known for is when we do things in group, it is like the unity of the moment, the way they do it, super neat and look like they have one action, at a time.

(singing in Tongan) We decide on what costume that the students are using, but most of the costumes of the girls are done by their mothers.

Most of the costumes that we use are from leaves of certain plants here in Tonga, or we can decide on a tapa, there are different kinds of Tongan costumes with different names that made from tapa cloths.. or the very fine nets that you could do the costume out of that as well.

(slow paced music) The costumes are decided by the teachers and their students, and then we ask the mothers, so the mothers are doing the hard work.

- The leaves is key, they have to go and cut down the leaves, they put the leaves on the sea, after one week or two weeks, they go and get it, and it's going to white like that and they roll it and they come and make it like this.

All this stuff is from the coconut leaves, but this one is from the sea.

(singing in Tongan) They put the oil on our body because when they come and put the money on us and the money did not fall down, they put money inside my dress or (laughs) my chest, or they put on my skin like that.

This money is all mine, (laughs).

(slow paced music) - Everybody that knew Queen Salote loved her.

She spoke beautiful English, she was very well-educated, she became queen very early in her life.

She was 18, I believe when her father died.

The ages I lived in Tonga were from seven until 12, there was a close relationship between mother and dad and the royal family.

Dad was promoted to the position of British agent and Consul to the Kingdom of Tonga in 1949.

Tonga is not a colony, it is its own independent kingdom, but it is a British protectorate.

Therefore, my dad's position there was to be a liaison between the British government and the Tongan government of Queen Salote.

She was just such a interesting, enlightened, educated person, her talents went many directions.

- She's very fascinating, she understood the value of maintaining the arts in Tonga and the culture and encouraged her people to learn the dances and to maintain the dances.

She understood the need to pass on the knowledge of being Tongan.

- Queen Salote, she was the greatest poetess here in Tonga.

She used to compose songs, using very, very touching words to express her idea.

- And even now the compositions are still popular.

She knew a lot about the culture, the history, and the customs and she was the one who set up the Tonga Traditions Committee in the 1950s.

- [Clelia] Because she was queen of an independent kingdom, she had stature and status that not many other people had.

Queen Salote was one of the few elite that was invited to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.

- [Narrator] London, the morning of Tuesday, June, 2nd, the morning of Coronation Day.

(slow paced trumpet music) - After the coronation, all of the dignitaries of royalty and other important people were in a procession that went back to Buckingham Palace.

The procession that went back of these dignitaries were in open air carriages.

It started to rain on this procession, the carriages is stopped and the various attendants got out and put up the carriage tops so that the dignitaries and whoever it wouldn't get wet.

When the attendant came to Queen Salote's carriage, and he was ready to put her carriage top up and she said, no and she said, I don't want it up, I want it down that the rain was good, it made things grow, and that it was all right to get wet.

She knew that the British people had come out, stood for hours in this rain to see all of these interesting people, and she was by gosh, gonna give 'em a show, and she did.

And she wave to one side and she'd tell the Sultan "You wave on that side and all the wave on this side."

To show her appreciation to the British people.

That night they found Queen Salote's maid cowered in the front room, frightened out of her mind, she said, "The phone had been ringing.

There'd been people coming to the door knocking."

And she didn't know who it was and she was afraid, she didn't know if it was good people or bad people.

Finally, they were able to find out, that these were reporters, they all wanted to know about Queen Salote, this queen who had ridden in the procession, in the rain and overnight, literally, Queen Salote became I would say a superstar.

From there on, there was no way they could travel in London without a huge group gathering and they went to Scotland and Ireland, after that, after they left London and the crowds were there too, throwing flowers, bouquets in hand, waving.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Into Sydney, comes Her Majesty Queen Salote of Tonga who is returning to her Pacific Island home after attending the coronation.

During a brief stay in the city, Queen Salote gave Pathe her first ever newsreel interview.

- I had a very wonderful trip to England, to attend the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

I met the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, several times and they're most charming.

The coronation was a great occasion, and the memories of it will never die.

Although I got a good soaking, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and now that I'm back in Sydney, I am very pleased not only to be here amongst friends, but it's a step nearer home.

- I remember my grandma, my mother, speaking of the late queen, Queen Salote, she said, she's a very loving and kind queen and very humble come down to earth for her people.

My moms and their ancestors, they wanted to follow the path, the good path that the late queen teaches the people of Tonga.

- She helped to empower women to be very powerful and to be very knowledgeable in their role as women in the Tongan society.

She loved her people and she loved Tonga.

- She was very honored queen and she's well remembered.

(slow paced music) - Before the Tui Tonga, we were slaves of the Kings and the Nobles.

If we say something you're gonna be killed, our lives were under the control of the Nobles and the Kings.

But King George Topou I, he gave our freedom on the 4th of June, 1862, and in 1875, he gave our constitution.

And in our constitution, we are free from the bondage of the chief abusing us.

So all the Tongan dance and Hiko and such, are doing that to show our respect, and show our appreciation in what the king has done to us.

He was founder or the maker of modern Tonga.

(singing in foreign language) It is the role of the commoner just to do the dancing, to make them Nobles and those in a higher rank to be satisfied in what they are doing.

They sit there and relax and let the others do the... Do the Hiko.

- It's Tonga's way of differentiating between the royalty and the Nobles and then the common people.

I understand that at some point, it was the way of life and that the common person's life was worth as much as the next rock, and it was dispensable and their purpose for living was to serve.

That was there before Captain Cook arrived in Tonga.

When he arrived in Tonga, he noted that there was a big difference in the common people and then also the Royal household.

- At the moment, we still have that, today is not like the past century, we are in the new millennium nowadays, there's a very big change in the way that we do things for the King.

The King and the Nobles, they love us, they gave us their estate taking and distribute it to people and we live there as our own.

(truck engine roaring) Before, in the last century, it was the King and the Nobles who were having the chance of going and have better education.

But nowadays commoners do have a chance to go to universities and go overseas and study and have better education.

(bright upbeat music) - It's been a long time since I do this one, and it's still a bit shaky.

My auntie, she sit back on her heels and she used to do seven.

It is beautiful to see, because she can control the thing going round the air.

I would like to be like that one day, but it'd be too late now, I'm getting old too.

(audience clapping) - [Paprika] Why wait, wait, what men don't do Hiko?

Why do men not juggle?

(speaking in Tongan) - They're never used to it.

They only play marbles and climbing up on the coconut trees, and everything like that.

- [Paprika] Would you want to learn to play Hiko?

(speaking in Tongan) And why?

- That's girl stuff, he says, (laughs).

- Hiko is more like a woman's role, if a man is doing the Hiko, he will be mocked by other boys because he is doing female's work.

Here in Tonga the women are higher rank than the man.

The man has to go to the bush and do the plantation, they cut the firewood, they have to look after the family, everything, and then the easy work will be done by women.

They do not join in the war, they were staying home, they have nothing to do, they used the orange, the lemon, what they got from the trees, just to spend their leisure time.

(woman laughing) - Hiko is strictly a female pastime in Tonga.

The other thing that is female is weaving of mats and taking care of at the tapa cloth.

- Women, we have been well-treated, we were always like a special guest in the family, especially if you are the eldest daughter.

- The oldest sister in a family is higher in ranking to their brothers and their brother's children.

(fast paced guitar music) - At home, it is not allow for the brothers to touch the sisters.

At home, brother are not allowed to enter the bedroom of sisters.

And brother is not allowed to touch anything that owned by sisters.

And at night time, if the sisters are going to somewhere, there must be a brother who follow the sisters to make sure that he will take care of the sisters, on her way to the store and then come back home safely.

- Ever since I was growing up, the boys, they play a bit far away from the girls, we don't mix together or play together as groups.

(water splashing) I remember when we are grown up, we have like two big Tongan houses, the boys sleep on their own and we sleep on our houses.

It's one of our customs and traditions.

There are roles that are done by men, which is not done by women.

There is a saying that women's place here in Tonga is at home, they have to stay behind at home, looking after the children, to the housewife and such.

(cool piano music) We haven't have a Noble as a female.

Beginning of the parliament here in Tonga, they were only men, no female governor, that is what we come across now.

Might be later in future, we might have these people, but at the moment, these are what we have in our government.

There is a need to educate people, so they understand the role of women, they can do that thing that the men are doing in parliament.

(singing in Tongan) - Most of the time the Hiko dance is performed to the Royal members, and it's very great honor for us to perform to our King and Queen, or any member of the Royal family in Tonga.

- [Man] Hiko, it is quite interesting, 'cause if you're a performer, you're gonna have the master the skills or hand coordinations, body balancing, and also the concentration on all the tui nuts that you are following up in the air.

- Most of the girls did four or five, you admired the girls that juggled eight.

At least I did greatly 'cause I knew I could never get that many, but it was nice to know that it could be done, and maybe that was something you couldn't strive to do.

- By learning the Hiko, it reminds us of how to behave good and be respected and to think of yourself that women, they are very important in the society.

We will like a princess in our family, moving around and showering the candle nuts into the air, it gives us some proudness.

We they're very fortunate at that time, if we have been selected to be part of it at school, it's a big thing for us at that time.

You feel beautiful and the movement, it's emotional, like sexy, you feel the happiness in you.

- One of the first Hiko dance at the Queen Salote, juggle four, sometimes six.

- I can do three now, (laughs).

Give me one, so I can try four.

See, it's good practice, I'm tired (laughs).

- [Paprika] Yeah, I bet you are.

(speaking in Tongan) (women laughing) (speaking in Tongan) - As a student in school, you can feel nothing, it really hurts when you start doing it after 30 years.

- [Paprika] This is the first time you've done Hiko in 30 years?

- Yeah, that's right, it is, it needs a lot of practice.

But the younger ones, they're eager to have it done to really do it.

(slow paced guitar music) - I think these days, not every girl know how to do the juggling.

In our days, we don't have any games, so that's why you can afford to have, 'cause you don't have to buy the tui tui fruits, you can just pick them from the trees at home and start practicing the Hiko.

- You created your own entertainment, there was no TV, of course, back then there was very little, it wasn't right there on the island that you could use or make into a game.

If you had nothing else to do, so you've got the Hiko nuts, and you sat around and practice for an hour here, an hour there and it was, yeah, (laughs), it was a game.

- These days, they have video, they have TV and maybe the young girls of these days don't have any time to juggle.

- If we put Hiko in the field events, or school sports, the best one will go for long and longer and longer, see who will win the medal and the second will be the silver medal, and the third will be the bronze medal.

But since from last year, we leave the Hiko from the events of our school sports because we didn't have enough money to buy or to finance some medals for that.

I think Hiko will be lost later because we are busy in different sports.

It is one of our materials to preserve for the next generation.

It is our responsibilities because Hiko is a part of our culture in Tonga.

If we emphasize that we do it in school do it in the physical education, do it in the competition.

maybe we will preserve for the next generation.

- If that art ever gets lost to the youth, it's a big loss.

That's an art and that's a free subject, that's very important that the young adults and the youth can learn.

(singing in Tongan) - It's very interesting how the Tongan community formed here in Euless, Texas.

The Tongan couple first moved here back in the 1980s, they transferred over here with the airlines, when Dallas Fort Worth Airport was being built.

The DFW airport was going to bring a lot of jobs to the area, the cost of living was inexpensive, it was a great place to raise a family.

(cool piano music) Tongans are community oriented, family and tradition, and all of those things binds them together.

And so it was only natural that they all drew to each other formed the church, so they can have a communal place to be able to be Tongans and to share their culture and their custom and the language and maintain the core things that makes us Tongan.

Since then, we've had a growing of the Tongan community here, and we have 12 churches in the area.

Most of how the culture is transitioned over here to this area is done through the churches.

- As a pastor's wife, and as a leader of the women's department, we are very blessed to work here and take care of the 47 families in Free Wesleyan Church in Euless.

Coming to church is one of the important thing to keep them going and staying here in the United States.

(speaking in foreign language) (audience laughing) The members are very supportive by the mayor from the city about our children's education.

- We had an event last night that was hosted by the Euless Tongan Community Committee.

It was an event to help promote higher education for the Tongan youth of Texas and to help encourage the youth here, to go to college and go to universities and receive their degrees.

To come here to America and to leave their homeland for a better life, and to provide that into struggle and working menial jobs for their children, it's a big sacrifice for them.

And it is our duty to try and help ease that, and to ease that, we believe education is the great equalizer.

I'm sure everybody misses the ease and the comfort and the slow pace lifestyle back home, but the ability to be able to provide food and shelter and a warm home and to do all of those things, those are trade-offs.

All the Tongans here and the community here is in a very unique place 'cause we're living history, we're developing, we're making what's gonna happen and how this community is gonna be like, in 10, 15, 20, 30 years.

(plane engine roaring) - [Pilot] Good afternoon (speaks in foreign language).

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to flight 1902 - I hadn't done Hiko since I was maybe eight or nine, and when I left Tonga and came here, I don't believe I've ever seen Hiko discussed or performed.

Honestly, there's a lot of things that we lose in coming here to America.

And after with the first generation of kids that are born here in Texas, I'm sure they probably never heard the word Hiko, it's something that kinda slowly fades out because there's other things more pressing to take care of.

- The ages I lived in Tonga were from 7 until 12.

I'm sorry that I didn't teach my grandchildren.

You just don't think about it.

I was 12 when I left Tonga, and I'm now 73, it's been over 60 years.

So I went to H-E-B and bought the hardest limes I could find, and I was juggling the other night to show the grandkids and they said, "Oh Nana, you can juggle, hey, wait, let me get my video camera."

They got their phones and they videoed me juggling, and said, "We're gonna send these to our friends, you're doing something we can't do."

And I thought hurray, finally, I mean, there's some few things that I can do better than they anymore, I mean, it's a reversal here, (laughs) so I'm enjoying being able to do something they can't.

(slow paced music) (chattering) (singing in foreign language) - I'm 73, we came here 1981.

I remember that when I was still at school, Queen Salote College, started two, next time three, in long, long time, I never do that, but I like it, it's exercise for me, for my hand, both hands.

(singing in Tongan) - In Euless, Texas, I want to bring Hiko into life, by teaching the women and the girls, and my children too.

(singing in Tongan) - I'm hoping that some of the women here can help pass that on to the next generation of kids, help preserve our Tongan culture here in this new home that we have in Euless, Texas.

(bright upbeat music) - It's fun, especially when you're young, but not now, when you become a mother, I have no time to do these things.

(chattering) (women laughing) whoever wins is the one who got the $1000.

(woman screaming) (women laughing) (fast paced music) Most of us when we didn't have a job, so when I see the whole program last night, it's give me an idea, you can bring more money to your family by doing the juggling.

It's very good for us to do something for living, is bringing me more idea what I can do in the future.

(women laughing) - Juggling for me, I didn't thought you gotta make money, but when I see the, your program last night, is a surprise.

I learn a lot, I thinking of maybe one day probably me or my kids become one of the best juggling in the world, you never know.

Maybe one day somebody can do juggling program here in Tonga, so our kids can learn how to do it, Tongan they can do anything.

(bells ringing) (fast paced music) (children clapping) - I had those girls throwing back and forth to each other in patterns immediately that usually take a while for people to get.

One, two, three, four.

Get really low, low, play Hiko, play Hiko, play Hiko...

Turn around, walk backwards, only the right hand.

(indistinct), yay, this is the winner, the winner.

(children applauding) All over the world, mostly men juggle, many men juggle, very few women all over the world.

So you in Tonga are very unique.

(children chattering) (slow paced music) - This is the first time for an overseas friend to come and try to remind us the important of Hiko and show us that Hiko can be one of the future career for the girls.

(woman laughing) (children laughing) - You like this kind of juggling?

You like?

- No.

- No?

(Paprika laughing) - In our primary schools, in our high schools, we still have to pass on from one generation to another, how to do the Hiko.

- I believe if we continue to teach our girls Hiko, no matter what age they are, just let them try, it will give them the pleasure of having those happiness and being well-respected at that time.

(cool piano music) - Women is at home, for my experience they always said that, but because of the development and the civilization now, women is much better than men.

- There are women's right in Tonga, it's just like overseas.

Women can vote, they can be a member of parliament or ministers, like today, the minister of education is a woman and some of the government departments, their bosses are women.

Women can have businesses, they are free to do anything except the land, they can lease the land, but they can't own the land.

They can become a minister in the government, they can run the election, they can debate in the legislative assembly, they can do anything, so they had a move, so that women will go into the parliament.

- It's an honor for families to have children who work for a living and to work for the government, and especially at higher positions, maybe in the government jobs in Tonga.

I believe it's an honor for a family to have a female child that is educated and smart enough to be able to hold and acquire a position of rank in Tonga.

(slow paced music) - I still am amazed that it's so unusual for women to juggle, 'cause it never crossed our mind that it was that special, we just did it.

- When the Hiko is done everywhere, I think it's a part of myself.

- Hiko means a lot to, it gives you life, it keeps you youth, you don't feel your age old, (laughs), you think you're still young (laughs).

It reminds you who you are and how important you are, doesn't matter where you travel or where you stay in the world, but you remember you are a girl from Tonga, it will give you positive mind and keep you going wherever you are.

You have a good soul, happy soul and you always wanted to share.

I think that's the importance of teaching Hiko.

(waves crashing) (singing Hiko song in Tongan)