A Handbook for Transnational Samoan Matai (Chiefs)
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A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL SAMOAN MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA Editors LUPEMATASILA MISATAUVEVE MELANI ANAE SEUGALUPEMAALII INGRID PETERSON A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL SAMOAN MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA Chapter Editors Seulupe Dr Falaniko Tominiko Muliagatele Vavao Fetui Malepeai Ieti Lima COVER PAGE Samoan matai protestors outside New Zealand Parliament. On 28 March 2003, this group of performers were amongst the estimated 3,000 Samoans, including hundreds of transnational matai, who protested against the Citizenship [Western Samoa] Act 1982 outside the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington. They presented a petition signed by around 100,000 people calling for its repeal (NZ Herald 28 March 2003. Photo by Mark Mitchell). Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand Website: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/mbc/ ISBN: 978-0-473-53063-1 Copyright © 2020 Macmillan Brown Center for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Except for the purpose of fair review, no part may be stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including recording or storage in any information retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. No royalties are paid on this book The opinions expressed and the conclusions drawn in this book are solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Editing & Graphic Designing Dr Rosemarie Martin-Neuninger Published by MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury DEDICATION A Tribute This book is dedicated to one of the symposium participants, Tuifa'asisina Eseta Motofoua Iosia, who passed away on 8 April 2020. Her contribution to this symposium was inspiring and her story will live on in the Handbook and inspire others to become matai also. The book is a result of a symposium on transnational Samoan matai held at the University of Auckland in November 2017. Figure 1 Symposium Participants1 1 NOTE: Biographies are at time of the conference in 2017. i A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to thank Ratuva S, editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) for the reproduction of my chapter in this book, and the Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand for their assistance, without which my team would not have been able to conduct our research. We also wish to thank our research participants who kindly agreed to be interviewed by the team, the 550 transnational matai, who completed our online survey, and Pacific Studies, Te Wānanga o Waipapa, University of Auckland for supporting this research project. ii A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA TRANSNATIONAL FA’AMATAI SYMPOSIUM OPENING PRAYER Lo matou Tamā o i le lagi, o lau Afio o le Atua e to’atasi, na e faia le lagi ma le lalolagi, ona e faia ai lea o le paleali’i o au galuega, o le tagata na e faia i lou lava fa’atusa paia. E vi’ia lau Afio ona o mea silisili ua e saunia mo le fanau a tagata, le lalolagi matagofie ma lona si’osi’omaga, aemaise le atamai e mafaufau tonu ai. Fa’afetai ona o lenei fa’amoemoe sa taumate fa’ameata’ita’i i ‘ato, sa lilo i manatu pe taunu’u pe leai. A o lenei ua fa’ataunu’uina i le manuia a matou fuafuaga i lou agalelei, ua ta’ita’iina mai ai le soifua laulelei o le ‘au usufono, i le lagi e mama ma le soifua manuia. E ao ai la ia i matou ona momoli atu le vi’iga ma le fa’ane’etaga i lau Afio lo matou Atua. Fa’amanuia mai i le ‘au usufono i matā’upu o le a fetufaa’i ai i manatu, le aoao o tofā manino mo le fa’alauteleina o su’esu’ega tauleatamai, mo le lelei auiluma o tulaga taulea’oa’oga. Fa’atamāo’āigaina i matou i lou mana, i lou poto silisili ‘ese, ‘auā o lau Afio o le punāvai o le atamai. O la matou tatalo lea e ala atu i lou suafa Iesu Keriso, lo matou Ali’i ma lo matou Fa’aola. Amene! Oh God, our Father in heaven, the only one God who created the heaven and earth, then created the crown of Your creation, Your very holy image in a form of a man. We give praises to your Holy Name for great things you have done for us, the beautiful world and the environment thereof, especially our minds to think rationally. We give you thanks for guiding us through our plans, for bringing us together as a transnational group from afar. As humans there was doubt in our minds whether participants from afar would make it but, Lord we are grateful for your kindness in bringing us together safely today. Bless each and every one of us as we share the knowledge and understanding of our search. Enlighten us with your spirit as we seek your guidance, for you are the source of all knowledge and understanding. In the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we pray. Amen! Muliagatele Vavao Fetui iii A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Lupematasila Misatauveve Melani Anae 1 Chapter 1 Mamalu Tau’ave (The essence of faamatai) The status of the fa’amatai in Samoa in 2017: A personal experience Fui Le’apai Pua’i’aunofo Muā’autau Tu’ua Lau 8 ‘Īlaoa, Galumalemana Salapō O a’u o le matai Samoa I Niu Sila – I am a Samoan matai in New Zealand Hon. ‘Aupito Su’a William Sio (New Zealand) 17 Tofa Leituala Galumalemana Taiaopo 24 Tuimaleali’ifano (Hawaii) Asiata Ulugia Taofiga Snell Clements (Australia) 33 Tonumaipea Peter Stephen Po Ching 38 (New Zealand) Chapter 2 Matai tamaitai (Samoan women matai) Matai Tama’ita’i at the intersections of family, fa’aletolu, and fa’amatai in Diaspora: Myth and meaning for a mother and daughter as chiefs in Hawai’i Loau Luafata Simanu-Klutz (Hawaii) 42 Matai Tamaitai: Samoan womanist agency and reflections on Nafanua Lupematasila Misatauveve Melani Anae 53 (New Zealand) iv A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA Women matai: a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same? Tagaloatele Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop (New Zealand) 69 Structure, agency and women matai: a post- colonial conundrum? Penelope Schoeffel (Samoa) 90 Chapter 3 Matai Tautua (Matai who serve) Tautua ai taumalele! Serving from afar! Fono-Tuvalu Fuimaono (New Zealand) 98 “E sui faiga, ae tumau le faavae” Transnational notions of service: “ways of doing may change, but the foundations remain the same” Seulupe Falaniko Tominiko (New Zealand) 113 Tautua: a relational obligation? Muliagatele Vavao Fetui (New Zealand) 125 Chapter 4 Teu le va (Relational spaces of matai) Authority of the matai sa’o in contemporary Samoa: at home and abroad Meleisea Leasiolagi Malama Meleisea (Samoa) 139 The matai tautua and the word “matai” through time and space Serge Tcherkezoff (France) 145 v A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA Aga’ifanua ma aganu’u: localised and universal village practices – toward a better understanding of indigenous systems: a case from Falelatai, ‘Upolu, Samoa Luamanuvae Morgan Tuimalealiifano (Fiji) 158 Chapter 5 Loto alofa ma lima malosi (Affective and effective ties of matai) A modern matai: reconciling modern knowledge with ancient wisdom Papali’i Failautusi Avegalio (Hawaii) 177 Pacific Islanders Presbyterian Church matai personal NZ-born/raised experiences: Anae Lupematasila Lima Arthur Anae 184 Tuifa’asisina Eseta Motofoua Iosia 186 Talamatavao Peteru Sone Iosia 191 Chapter 6 ‘Fotu o malama’ Youth Panel (Suli: matai-in- waiting) Dillon Misa , Sili Mireta Pita , Elise Peleti 195 Fuimaono Alolua, Seraphine Ekita Williams Facilitator: Leitulagi Natalie Maulolo Toevai Conclusion: Faamatai - A Globalised Pacific Identity Lupematasila Misatauveve Melani Anae 207 Authors Biographies 239 vi A HANDBOOK FOR TRANSNATIONAL MATAI (CHIEFS) TUSIFAITAU O MATAI FAFO O SAMOA INTRODUCTION Lupematasila Misatauveve Melani Anae This special issue will mark the 58th anniversary of Samoa’s Independence from New Zealand on 1 January 1962 and a celebration of the Transnational Faamatai Symposium that was held in November 2017, Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand, the first ever Symposium on global Samoan chiefs and the chiefly system. The two day event was hosted by the University of Auckland as part of Lupematasila Misatauveve Dr Melani Anae’s Marsden Project ‘Transnational matai (chiefs): ancestor god avatars or merely title-holders?’ funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand. Members of her team included Seulupe Dr Falaniko Tominiko, Muliagatele Vavao Fetui and Malepeai Dr Ieti Lima with emerging researchers Karen Mangnall, Seugalupemaalii Ingrid Peterson, Seira Aukuso-Su’e, Tiresa Poe, and Natalie Leitulagi Toevai. One of her team members, Muliagatele Vavao Fetui is writing the very first PhD Thesis in the Samoan language, based on this Marsden research project, and it will be the inaugural PhD Thesis written in Samoan at the University of Auckland and in New Zealand. The title of his thesis is ‘O Toe Laumeanuti o le Fa’aaloalo I Agatausili a Samoa I Atualuga (Notions of politeness and respect in a Samoan transnational community), and it will be submitted at the end of 2020. The Symposium provided a timely opportunity to produce the very first publication written by Samoan matai and transnational matai themselves, partly because for a long time, we have watched others write our story, and as a result, actively reinterpret and suppress our Samoan indigenous knowledges and experiences.