Some Samoans’ perceptions, values and beliefs on the role of parents and children within the context of aiga/family and the influence of fa’asamoa and the church on Samoan parenting. Esther Tumama Cowley-Malcolm A thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in partial fulfilment of the degree Master of Arts November, 2005. DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to one of the most loving and caring Samoan fathers I had the greatest pleasure and privilege of knowing. My big brother, mentor and role model; Jerry Ieremia Cowley. June 21, 1949 – January 5th, 2004 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Tribute i 2. Table of contents 11 3. List of Graphs, Figures and Tables. iv 4. Acknowledgements v 5. Abstract vii Chapter 1: Background and Historical Context 1 Background & historical context 1 Overview of chapters 10 Review of the literature 12 Chapter 2: Research Approach/Design/Analysis & Methods 32 My approach to research as a Pacific/Samoan researcher 32 Research design and procedures 37 Analysis approach 39 Methods 42 Chapter 3: Findings 52 The Roles 52 Role of Parents 52 Role of Children 60 Chapter 4: Parenting Practices 64 Parents’ perceptions of how they were parented and the way they 64 parent their children. Values and beliefs 76 Influence of the Church 79 Fa’asamoa and Fa’alavelave 82 Chapter 5: The ‘Ups and Downs’ of Parenting 90 Security and stability 90 The most enjoyable times of being a Samoan parent 91 The least enjoyable time of being a Samoan parent 92 ii Chapter 6: Findings -The ‘Big Four’ 95 The paradoxes of shame and pride 95 Beneath the stereotypes 102 Intergenerational challenges 109 New horizons 112 Chapter 7: Conclusion 116 Chapter 8: Discussion 122 References 128 Appendices 1. Glossary 136 2.Information form 137 3. Ethics approval form 138 4. Question form 139 iii “I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning”.. iv LIST OF GRAPHS, FIGURES AND TABLES Graph 1.Population of Pacific peoples in New Zealand 2 Graph 2. Proportion of New Zealand Born 3 Graph 3. Meningococcal Disease rates 4 Graph 4. Acute Rheumatic Fever rates 4 Graph 5. unemployment rates 6 Table 1.NVIVO Analysis Process 41 Table 2.Number of Ministers, Elders and parents 42 Table 3. Groupings from each church 43 Table 4. Church one 47 Table 5. Church two 48 Table 6. Church three 49 Table 7. Church four 49 Table 8.Other respondents (those not in the 4 churches) 50 Table 9. How Respondents manage their children 76 Table 10. Values 79 Table 11.Respondents parents who were hit by their parents 104 Table 12.Respondents who hit their children 104 Figure1. Hansen’s Model 37 Figure 2.Fale, house of values 120 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My heartfelt thanks to: My God For your goodness and mercy. May your presence forever reign over me. My family My late parents (Talaia and Oliva Cowley) for your legacy of love and service which lives on through your descendants. My husband and soulmate John for your encouragement, support and never ending patience and love which continues to bless my life immensely. My son Ezra for making motherhood such a wonderful, rewarding experience and Alicia for being such a supportive stepdaughter. Research mentors To Dr Jens Hansen for your creative and inspiring ways of developing my enthusiasm for NVIVO and research. Dr Richard Smith for the final critique and assistance in getting the final ‘bits’ together. Really enjoyed working with you both. Supervisors To Professor Charles Crothers and Dr Ian Hassall (my supervisors) for your guidance, advice and direction and for seeing my passion and drive and encouraging me to get this work done. Thanks so very much for your patience and understanding. I wish also to acknowledge and thank Dr Emma Davies for her supervision, support and encouragement in the early days of writing this thesis until her secondment for a year to Ministry of Social Development. Wider friends and family/aiga support To my Samoan Support Group, Tapu Misa, Lope Heath, Reverend Fei Taule’aleausumai and Toesulu Brown for your support and encouragement. To Stacey Frantzen for your computer skills and support. Margie-Jean, John, Heather and Tafili for taking the time to read some aspects of this work and others who read the lot and provided comments/feedback. To Andrew at Akoranga Library for being so helpful in tracking down books and articles. vi The participants Most importantly to the participants in this study. This would not have been possible without you. Thank you for the privilege and the honour of allowing me to hear and record your incredible journeys of being Samoan parents. I hope the messages that have transpired from your stories will inspire others to overcome their adversities and learn from the insights and lessons your stories have conveyed. I have been inspired and am in awe of what I have learned from you all. I hope that many others will also be inspired to support mothers and fathers to be positive, caring and effective parents to our precious children. My heartfelt thanks and gratitude go out to each and every one of you. Acknowledgement for sponsor/funder I thank the AUT University School of Social Sciences Postgraduate fund for research money enabling me to provide culturally appropriate koha (mealofa) for participants after the research was conducted, not as an inducement to participate. My examiners For their valuable comments, feedback and thorough assessment of my work. Thank you so very much. Ethics This project was approved by AUTEC on 17th August, 2004: number 04/128. Lastly, to all my friends and my close and extended family on both the Malcolm and Cowley side. Thank you for your collective acts of love, encouragement and support. Fa’afetai, fa’afetai, fa’afetai lava vii ABSTRACT This qualitative study describes maternal and paternal experiences of thirty-five Samoans living in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. The study was conducted in order to establish, “What, if any changes to parenting practices have occurred since their family migrated into New Zealand?” Through interviews, respondents discussed their values, attitudes and beliefs and how they perceived that they were brought up by their own parents. They also described and discussed their own roles as parents and the roles of their children. They also discussed how the church influenced the ways in which their parents parented them and the way they themselves parent their children. Respondents were chosen via a snowball technique of referrals from four different church ministers. The four churches were selected on the recommendation of one Samoan Church Minister as being representative of the Samoan community. Four ministers were interviewed, along with four elders and five parents from each church. Seven other people from outside these churches, four not church attenders were also interviewed in order to be able to further explore the importance and effects of the churches. The theoretical approach engaged a combination of the principles of Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and the ‘Fa’afaletui,’ (Tamasese, 1997.) The latter is a Samoan framework which gives a multi-layered approach to data interpretation using a range of lenses and perspectives. In conducting this investigation, the combination of Western and Samoan frameworks was appropriate especially given the cultural sensitivities that were apparent around the topic matter and the ethnicity of the respondents and the researcher. Earlier findings, concerning discipline by (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 2002) were affirmed, as were findings about fa’alavelave from the earlier study into parenting practices (McCallum et al, 2000). In this present study, it was found that enculturation (i.e changes in culture) over time, modified parenting practices and specifically that inter-generational perspectives about parenting practices were apparent. Evidence of conflicting approaches to values between generations was encountered and a range of rituals were adapted as a consequence of migration and time; discipline and fa’alavelave were prime examples of this. The relative paucity of a body of Pasifika literature and Pacific research by Pacific people, from which a theoretical foundation for a study of this kind could be developed, was seen to be problematic. It is concluded that enculturation following migration spawns a reconstruction of values and associated practices in parenting and that previously held core values concerning discipline, the church and the family become altered over time and generations. It is also suggested that future research should seek to corroborate the findings of this study by examining the parenting practices of the next generation. viii CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND-HISTORICAL CONTEXT, REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Background and Historical context: Samoans in New Zealand – Past to Present This chapter will describe the motivating factors, expectations and current realities for Samoan immigrants to New Zealand. In addition, I will also review the literature on parenting and associated variables by various New Zealand, Pacific and other international researchers. Around 1874 the New Zealand Census recorded six Samoans resident in New Zealand. Most of the very early (pre-World War I) Samoan migrants were children from wealthy Afakasi (half caste ) families who were more aligned to the Papalagi, and were therefore given Papalagi privileges and status which for many involved travel to and from countries like New Zealand for education. As the following quotation reveals education is very important in Samoan culture, “Education is a prime value in Samoan life and a major motive for migration” (Pitt & MacPherson, 1974, p.99).