Humans Of The Islands - Keith Waldron Moala

Keith Waldron Moala

Telecommunications Engineer

Tongan

How did you start your career in Telecommunications?

I was only 18 years old at the time when a British company offshore called Cable and Wireless came to Tonga. It was 1976 and it was the first Satellite dish ever brought to Tonga. I was so excited and I wanted to know about it so I applied for a job as a trainee technician. Before this, the way we communicated with the outside world was through radio high frequency and we only had one or two radio channels to New Zealand and you would have to shout down the phone line for people to hear you properly from Tonga. So Cable and Wireless started the first Satellite communication in the country. I spent ten years with them was able to replace the expatriate who was a British Engineer, and look after the Satellite station for the country.

And what did you do after that?

I left the company because I wanted to do my engineering degree before I turned 30, it was one of my dreams. I received a Scholarship to study in Australia – by this time, I was married with three children. We all went to Australia and I completed by Electrical Engineering degree in Telecommunications. I came back to Tonga and was employed by TongaSat, a satellite business owned by the Royal family dealing with the lease of orbital slots for the Kingdom of Tonga. I was the first ever Tongan Satellite engineer that they hired.

Where has that career taken you since?

Over the years, because of the on-the-job training I received, my family and I lived in Washington for some time, the United Kingdom as well, Australia and also I worked in various parts of the Pacific region. I have travelled for work to Russia, India, Japan, Malaysia and many other countries. And then in 1990, the University of the South Pacific and its regional campuses started a new project– it was a satellite communication network to provide long distance learning for students across the region. I managed that project and lived in Fiji for ten years. I enjoyed that job very much because it meant that I came back home to my people and it was always the dream of my heart to be used locally in the Pacific. It was a joy for me to go around places like Tokelau, Niue, Tuvalu and especially through times of cyclones, hurricanes and disasters when communications were badly affected and I was able to be there to help recover their services.

What have been the highlights for you in terms of serving the Pacific community?

I remember one case in 2004 January, Cyclone Heta hit Niue – it was the strongest cyclone and worst damage ever recorded in the history of Niue. This cyclone blew away the whole communication system of the island and luckily our USP Net had survived so we used it as a communication network for the whole island. They used it to communicate to the whole world to get help because the Telecom Niue satellite dish was destroyed by the cyclone. I helped provide email communication for the whole country so they could get help from New Zealand. Another highlight for me was installing a satellite dish in Santo, Vanuatu in 2008. We brought it to Vanuatu from Fiji by boat and it was one of the USP’s most remote campuses.

In all the countries you travelled to, what was it like being a Pacific Islander? Was it challenging being accepted into other cultures/societies or having your own culture and identity recognized outside of Tonga and the Pacific?

I am always proud to be a Tongan. To know that I’m a Tongan – I think it’s unique and I think it was God’s idea for me to be a Tongan. I cannot deny it and I love it – every part of it and every minute of it. I remember Queen Salote said “The fundamental question someone must be able to answer is ‘who you are’. It is the knowing of self.” We must know who we are. In Tonga, I heard a Minister preach about the identity of a Tongan. What makes a Tongan a Tongan? And his answer was a real Tongan accepts Christ – that’s a striking thought. But our national motto is “Koe ‘Otua mo Tonga ko hoku tofia” which means God and Tonga are my inheritance. Our first King gave his people back to the hands of God, it means that of course we grew up as Tongans, but we belong to God. It is part ofwho we are.

Was it a struggle to adapt to other cultures and societies around the world? Did you ever feel lonely?

Never, never. I always knew God was with me. Everywhere I went I had home with me in my heart. I found out that in the end, all people are the same and I can adapt to them. It is much different in places like the US or the UK and even India, Japan and places around Asia, it’s very different. But home was in my heart and I didn’t feel homesick at all and I enjoyed meeting so many different people of different cultures. It just expands my horizon of experience. I was 19 when I went to the UK for two years for my first work training experience. I met people from Africa, the Carribean, Baharajan, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone and the Indian Ocean, Seichelles and Maldives. We ate together, we played rugby together, we played soccer together. I never knew you could do Tongan things outside of Tonga but we were able to adapt to each other.

Did they know where Tonga was?

I remember in the UK, there was a guy who had a T-shirt with a phrase printed on it saying “Where the hell is Tonga?” because it was a joke that nobody in Britain knew where Tonga was. The younger generation didn’t know but the older generation did because of Queen Salote’s impact on the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. There were about 3 of us Tongans in the college and everyone said we were so unique. We were so glad to be Polynesian and to be Tongan.

What are you doing now in your life?

All throughout my career in every country we lived in, I stayed strongly connected to the church – I had always had a dream in my heart to be used in church ministry. When I came to NZ in 2009 I didn’t want to continue my career as a Telecommunications Engineer and I wanted to be a Presbyter for the church of New Zealand. In 2011, I started a radio ministry, I started the first 24/7 Tonga Radio program in New Zealand that is fully owned by Tongans. We started in Panmure, Auckland and since then, I have installed 7 other radio stations around the North Island of New Zealand. We are under an NGO called the Tama ‘Ohi charitable trust, a name given to us by the Queen Mother of Tonga. To me, it’s the fulfillment of a mission that God put in my heart. With all the training and work experience that I went through and now I’m putting it to good use, to glorify God and build up His people.