From student to lecturer: Three years following Melenaite’s carpentry journey

In 2023, Melenaite told us that her inspiration for her career choice was her Dad and Grandma who were also carpenters.

“I want to be like them,” she said. And now she is.

At 22 years old, Melenaite is a qualified carpenter and lecturer at Fokololo ‘oe Hau / Tonga Institute of Science and Technology (TIST).

Over the past three years, Habitat has caught up with Melenaite three times; first as a first-year carpentry student, then as a graduate, and now as a lecturer. Through these conversations, we have listened to her journey from eager learner to skilled tradeswoman and teacher, consistently a role model for young people entering the trades.

In 2023, during her first year of carpentry studies, Melenaite joined a team of TIST students working alongside builders from New Zealand on Habitat New Zealand’s Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai tsunami rebuild. The eruption and resulting tsunami the previous year had destroyed homes and displaced families across Tonga. For many of the students, it was the first time they had worked on a large-scale building project.

Over the course of the project, the team completed eight new resilient homes for Tongan families whose homes had been destroyed by the tsunami. For Melenaite, the experience was more than just an introduction to her trade, it was the foundation for everything she created for herself after.

Melenaite graduated with her carpentry qualification in December 2024 and joined TIST as a lecturer.

“I’ve learned a lot about building my confidence and my skills in carpentry… as a lecturer,” says Melenaite in her interview this year.

“I have built even more confidence to stand in front of a lot of students and a lot of people as well in making speeches,” she says. “I’ve gained a lot of skills learning at the job, in teamwork, supporting each other.”

Now, the knowledge she gained from that first rebuild is passed directly to her students.

“I still use them (skills). I also share them with my students, help them out with their studies and work.”

Melenaite speaks often about the sense of community in carpentry, both on site and in the classroom. “What I enjoy the most is that in carpentry, we’re not just like teamwork or like workmates. We’re more like family because we have to work together, supporting each other in order to accomplish and achieve our missions and whatever we’re looking to build.”

That spirit of support extends to her students. “I look still young, but I feel like I have building my own family… it’s just grateful that I’m here helping them.”

As we’ve spoken to Melenaite over three years, she has always been consistent with her message; carpentry is an important skill for the youth of Tonga, especially young women, and it is a trade that can help people in housing need.

“Since our country, our little island, is very vulnerable to tsunamis and storms, I wanted to be one of the helpers to help out to our community building their homes and strengthening their foundations.”

“Carpentry is very important for young people… you can just use your own skills [to] build them up. You don’t have to… look for other people. You can do it yourself. You can help others as well.”

She hopes to keep studying and strengthening her knowledge so she can continue to teach others and “build up our home country, helping those people that have been needed homes.”

Melenaite’s story reflects the role skilled tradespeople play in preparing Pacific communities for the future; building homes that can withstand disasters and passing on the knowledge to keep doing so for generations to come.