Monalisa Salakielu Tu'itahi

The word “pioneer” comes from the French word “pionnier,” meaning “foot soldier.” A pioneer is someone who works diligently with others over a long period to achieve a common mission that prepares the way for those who follow them.

Monalisa Salakielu Tu’itahi is one of Methodism’s modern-day pioneers. She was born in the South Pacific island nation of Tonga and immigrated with her family to the United States at a young age in the mid-1970s, settling in Hawai‘i.

Her parents and 14 siblings became part of the Tonga congregation at Kahuku United Methodist, a small country church on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Its multiethnic membership reflected the early plantation population of the Hawaiian island and included a sprinkling of mainland transplants.

Worship is an integral part of the culture. “In their wisdom,” Tu’itahi said, “the church leadership understood the immigrants’ need to practice their faith in the way they were accustomed to in their native island. Their faith experience and church community lessened the sense of social and cultural disorientation naturally experienced by immigrants.

“My father made sure we attended the Tongan Sunday school and services, sang in the Tongan choir and attended the Tongan youth programs,” she continued, “but he also allowed us to take part in the church youth group and the youth choir and attend the English worship services. The experience provided a great forum for cross-cultural learning and certainly helped in the acculturation process.”

Tonga, about 3,000 miles from Oahu, is a Christian nation, with more than a third of the population adhering to the Methodist tradition. “Although The United Methodist Church is not in Tonga,” Tu’itahi noted, “Tongan immigrants often seek out Methodist-affiliated denominations, and hence, The United Methodist Church is a natural fit.” Pacific Islanders have embraced United Methodism fervently and passionately. “Culture and faith come together to form a strong and resilient foundation.”

Tu’itahi’s early experiences in the church laid the groundwork for her life’s work as an immigration attorney and advocate for empowering Pacific Islander United Methodists to participate fully within the church. She has been a leading voice in the denomination, bringing visibility to the gifts and needs of Pacific Islanders and helping to secure resources for first-generation leaders and youth. She is an outspoken witness stressing the importance of recognizing the contributions of all United Methodists and building learning bridges for “authentic sharing of gifts and resources.”

“Two-way learning opportunities must be made available for clergy, lay, youth and young people. The far and wide countries of the world that were once mission fields are now in the pews and are a living part of the church in the U.S.”

Tu’itahi is a member of the United with Hope UMC (Amanaki-Ketau Fakataha), a multi-lingual Tongan-American local church in Long Beach, California. Her husband, The Rev. Dr. Siosaia Tu’itahi, is the district superintendent of the West District of the California Pacific Conference. They have four adult children.

Monalisa Tu’itahi has been a lay leader at all levels of the denomination, from the local church to General Conference. She currently serves as Interim Immigration Ministries Coordinator for the California-Pacific Conference, Vice Chair of General Conference Commission, and as a member of the Interim Committee on Organization for the New U.S. Regional Conference.

Tu’itahi does not see herself as a pioneer as that term is usually used. Rather, she sees her work over time, and especially now, drawing on her skills and expertise as an immigration attorney, being about “putting one foot in front of the other in answering the call of the moment.”

For Monalisa Tu’itahi, the heart of her current call involves four practices: Resistance, advocacy, accompaniment and relationship building. She describes them this way:

“Resistance is a spiritual discipline stemming from our baptismal vows to resist evil and oppression.  Accompaniment is the ministry of being present, of stepping into a space of vulnerability together with those who are impacted.  Advocacy involves standing in the gap, intervening, interceding, fighting for those who are vulnerable.  And the superseding element that flows through it all, is relationship. We develop relationships with our immigrant siblings so that we can experience their humanity.  We develop relationships with partners, allies, and others in order to meet the challenge of this hour.” 

Relationship and accompaniment provide the basis for resistance and advocacy. Accompaniment is the foundation of all four.

Accompaniment in her current role with the California-Pacific Conference has meant travel to geographically and culturally distant and diverse parts of the conference from her base in the Los Angeles area. She has gone in her official capacity to offer training to strengthen the capacity of a rural agricultural community threatened with losing its workforce. She has also simply come to worship with multi-ethnic local churches across the conference whose members may be targeted by I.C.E. Her presence there, with no other agenda, has sometimes been enough to encourage someone to pick up the phone to call her office for assistance because they now know someone in the conference office who can give them sound legal and factual guidance. She estimates she’s worked closely with over 40 congregations in the conference in some form— whether by presence, by training, by offering legal advice, or by connecting them to legal representation or other organizations in their community who can help them.

Accompaniment for her means, too, providing the counter-narrative to the current political narrative that de-values immigrants as having no value, not being people, and not being welcome in this country. For her personally, she says, “Sometimes I may not be able to offer anything but just myself being there for the client, and sometimes just sitting there and they're crying and I'm sitting there even crying with them, really just meeting them where they are and just being a body, just being a presence.” That presence itself can be the counter-narrative that says “You are a person, you have value, you are welcome with me, and with us in the California-Pacific conference.”

And it means being engaged in advocacy herself. She estimates she’s been part of the weekly protest organized by an interfaith organization led by a United Methodist elder (C.L.U.E. Justice) at the Los Angeles County courthouse at least a dozen times since beginning her work with the conference in early 2025.

C.L.U.E. Justice is just one of the many groups focused on supporting immigrants that she has found and built relationships with. As she puts it, there is no reason for the conference to reinvent what is already in place. Instead, she can help connect United Methodist individuals and local churches to help strengthen the good work already underway.

Summarizing her sense of calling in this moment, Monalisa Tu’itahi says, “My “whys” all align in a space where I cannot keep from doing what I am doing now.  As a follower of Christ, an immigrant, a mother, an attorney, there is absolutely no way that I can sit back and do nothing in this season.  I am grateful that the leaders of the Annual Conference have responded to this need by creating a platform to do this work as part of its vision to end spiritual and physical hunger because I would have been doing it anyway.”

Wallace is the former director of Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.