Native American Samoan Youth Livelihood Project: Respectful of Culture & Environment
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NATIVE AMERICAN SAMOAN YOUTH LIVELIHOOD PROJECT: RESPECTFUL OF CULTURE & ENVIRONMENT 0 Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Our Project ........................................................................................................................................... 3 TRADITIONAL SAMOAN OVEN & COOKING: THE UMU ....................................................................... 4 A Group Essay about the UMU ........................................................................................................ 5 How to Make Fa’ausi ........................................................................................................................ 6 Natural Resources ................................................................................................................................ 7 A Group Essay about Our Natural Resources ................................................................................... 8 Fale Samoa (Samoan Shelter) ............................................................................................................ 11 Building Faleo’o Can Benefit our Community ................................................................................ 13 How a Faleo’o is Built ..................................................................................................................... 13 Go Back to Faleo’o .......................................................................................................................... 14 Traditional “Green” Gardening .......................................................................................................... 15 A Group Essay about Our Traditional Gardens .............................................................................. 16 Research on Some of Our Garden Crops Conducted by Youth Participants ................................. 17 Traditional Gardening in American Samoa .................................................................................... 19 Our Home Garden .......................................................................................................................... 19 My Own Home Garden .................................................................................................................. 20 The Elders ....................................................................................................................................... 22 Our Elders ....................................................................................................................................... 22 Stories from their Past ................................................................................................................... 23 Local Marketing.................................................................................................................................. 25 A Group Essay about Local Marketing ........................................................................................... 26 LEGENDS............................................................................................................................................. 28 Youth Participants .......................................................................................................................... 35 1 Introduction This e-Book chronicles the “Native American Samoan Youth Livelihood Training: Respectful of Culture & Environment Project” conducted by NASAC, a local non-profit organization located in American Samoa, and funded by the Administration for Native Americans. The project was designed to equip American Samoan youth with a set of valuable, traditional Samoan livelihood skills that respects their heritage and island environment; gives them economic viability in long-term living in American Samoa; and involves them in the preservation of significant cultural knowledge. Eighty-three youth between the ages of 12 -18 participated in the project over its three-year course. Though American Samoans have clung to their social culture, with increased westernization Samoan material culture has become largely neglected, negatively impacting our health, our environment, our economy and our culture. Two demonstration sites were established where Samoan practitioners and elders worked together with youth in teaching and learning traditional skills in gardening, food preparation and plant processing. The cultural knowledge and lore associated with those skills was shared. Stewardship of our fragile island ecology was a dominant theme. Youth also received financial literacy, local marketing, and computer training that would benefit developing the traditional livelihood skills for personal and family economic stability. Youth participants gained a great deal of associated cultural knowledge as they collaborated with elders in learning the various traditional livelihood skills. Importantly, as the project progressed, youth demonstrated increased curiosity and respect for their Samoan heritage; intergenerational relations became more open and uninhibited; and elders and youth alike were visibly proud of what they had to teach and of what they had learned. 2 Our Project By Karralynn Fitisone I spent last Saturday at the project again. The weather was warm and humid, great for learning new things and getting stuff done. This program has been in progress for three years and I have been a participant for two years. Those two years have been fun, informative, and productive. I’ve learned a bunch about our culture and about our environment, and combining those two concepts to learn how close we used to be to our environment and how it helps if we don’t forget that. I’ve learned a lot about the way our people used to live from our elders and how they took advantage of the environment. We learned how caring for our environment benefits us, how our environment was protected in the past, and how we need to protect it today and into the future. I learned traditional organic gardening (without pesticides and chemicals), how to make an umu (traditional way of cooking food the Samoan way), and how to process plants the traditional way to make a lot of products for ourselves like we used to, instead of importing them. We learned and practiced all these skills on a piece of land provided by NASAC. My favorite part of the program was the traditional gardening. We’ve been growing plants that are traditional like taro, laupele and pasio, and also healthy vegetables and herbs like eggplant, beans, basil and sage that are not traditional but nutritious and easy to grow in Samoa. Picking up litter around the vicinity is what we always start with. Keeping Samoa “litter-free” is not just for keeping Samoa beautiful, it also keeps Samoa healthy. I really liked working with others in my age group and seeing our gardens turn out successfully. It wasn’t always easy getting the plants to grow but in the end it was all worth it because the vegetables turned out great and healthy. This program has been a great experience, and I look forward to project days, especially days spent in the garden. 3 TRADITIONAL SAMOAN OVEN & COOKING: THE UMU 4 A Group Essay about the UMU Making an umu is fun and interesting. The umu is how our ancestors cooked and still today, it is a delicious and healthy way to prepare food. Food tastes better cooked in an umu than food cooked in an indoor oven. Making an umu is an important part of the Samoan culture. It reminds me of the past, how strong and healthy Samoans were back then and how it brought families and friends together working for something they can all enjoy. People seem to stop making umu because they think it is too hard and complicated. Instead, many Samoans today stay inside and watch TV or play with mobile devices if they are not at their jobs. It’s better to use time wisely making an umu, and afterwards, you would be proud you did it because your family has something extremely delicious to eat. The materials we need for making an umu surround us – rocks, wood, taro, banana, breadfruit, papaya, laupele, coconuts, etc. You can learn a lot about our culture and our environment by learning how to make a good umu. How do you make an umu? The first thing that needs to be done is to clean the umu area. Secondly, you have to lagolago (build a log foundation) for the sides of the umu. Then place the river rocks (not lava rocks or they could explode) within and wood on top to burn and heat up the rocks. Make sure everything is flat. Once the umu is fired up, it is time to prepare the food that will go into the umu. The basic Samoan foods that we use are the ulu (breadfruit), talo (taro), and fa’I (bananas). While the fire is burning and the rocks are heating, it is time to peel and scrape the skin from the ulu, talo and fa’i. When this is done and the rocks are white hot, place the food on the rocks. You can also add chicken or fish to the umu with laupele greens and make the special Samoan dish palusami (taro leaves in coconut cream) for a really nice umu and a complete, healthy meal. Cover all the food with banana and taamu leaves to keep the heat in. The food must bake in the umu for at least one hour or depending on what you cooking in the umu it may take longer. When the cooking is complete, the leaves are removed and the food is taken quickly off the hot rocks. The aroma of delicious Samoan food will fill up the air. Then, it’s time to eat. 5 Making