Mele’ana Kolato

“Malo Lelei, I live in Tonga. I am currently a teacher at Queen Salote College teaching English. I am 22 years old. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Language, Literature and History and a Graduate Certificate in Education.

My story is entitled ‘Who am I?’ The main reason I chose it was because growing up I moved around different places and I never really knew who I was as a person. So I guess I wanted to make a movie about my journey in finding myself because I know that there are others out there who are still searching for their own identities.”

Who am I?

The very next day another Aunt would be at the school gate. Once again my curious friends ask, ‘who is she?’  ‘She’s my mother’. The puzzled look on their faces screamed, ‘but you had a different mum yesterday!’

“I don’t know how other people try to find their identities, but for me it was coming back here to the roots, to the first place that I was, kind of like a full circle that made me realize who I am.

I think I was just telling [my story] to myself, a confirmation that this is me. I’m not really an open person to talk freely about myself and my life so I was actually surprised that I talked about the stuff that I talked about. I think I just felt like it was time to tell my story.”