Sports

Various types of crafts were reserved for each sex in traditional Tongan art. There were some crafts that were done by males and others that were done by women. The majority of weavers were female. Koloa, a form of woven barkcloth or mat, is what they produced. However, these were more than just mats; they were often given as gifts at formal occasions like weddings and were treated as a symbol of affluence. From simply sleeping on them to wearing them, these koloa mats were put to many different uses.

Typically, woodworking is at the heart of men's arts. Depending on the item, carving tools like meal bowls, spears, and war clubs may also include inlays of other materials like pearl shell and ivory. Additionally quite common in Fiji were these fighting clubs. In particular, dugout boats that were constructed from a single log were a specialty of the men who built canoes.