Samoa Language Week at Auckland Museum

Ia malu lou sā. Folau i lagimā. A well-grounded self is a successful self.

Central to this aspirational Samoan quote is the Gagana Samoa (Samoan language). In recognition of the 2025 Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa (Samoan Language week), we profile the Samoan writer Maulolo Asiata Wairaki Toevai, and his literary contribution to the 1977-1978 multilingual Pacific Tāmaki Makaurau newspaper, Mana. Written in seven additional languages, the newspaper was a meeting place for many communities engaged in social justice and Māori and Pacific story sovereignty.

Dive into the archives with us by visiting the Mana: Protest in Print exhibition, currently open from Dec 2024 – Oct 2026

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The stitched imagery on tapa is one of the lavalavas gifted to me by relatives when I visited Samoa, early 2020. This tapa piece was stripped from the bark of u’a, a (baby) paper mulberry plant on the side of our fale (house) in Matautu Lefaga, Samoa. The stripped and rinsed inner layer of the bark or lau u’a was then repeatedly scraped, rinsed, and stretched under cold water with asi (trochus shells) until it the lau u’a was wide enough to be beaten with the i’e and tutua (wooden beater and anvil). Once stretched, the lau u’a becomes tapa (undecorated tapa cloth) and is then laid in the sun to be dried. For the tapa piece ‘Talofa Oi’ the tapa was hung on the same washing line the lavalava hangs on as illustrated. 

When I returned to Aotearoa, I brought my tapa with me. Talofa Oi is part of a Lockdown series of works when I began stitching imagery of my Samoa trip from memory as I didn’t have access to Samoan tapa and painting tools here. One of those memories were a line of i’e lavalava on our washing line, a common sight in a Samoan domestic household. Each lavalava had odd but bright combinations of colour, unique prints, and obvious references to Samoa. The stitched i’e lavalava on this tapa had “Talofa” on one side and “Samoa 2020” printed across the other. It was humorous to see how many lavalava were given to me with warm sentiments of Samoa.

Embroidering personal memories onto tapa was a way for me to remember stories and tapa timeline using the resources that were available. Embroidery of tapa became my narrative of Samoan tapa or Siapo practice. Tapa su’i is my personal technique to sustain Siapo practice and be inspired to make, share, and hold Siapo knowledge for my identity as a Samoan woman. 

Coincidentally, this piece was done around election time, where Judith Collin's classic line “My husband is Samoan, so Talofa” came about, which I found hilarious. Thus, the title ‘Talofa Oi’ is a saying that not only references the remark, but is also a comment on how my fellow Samoans (including myself) navigate as diaspora and inherently political people.

^{Talofa Oi, Jasmine Tuiā, Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 2023.17.5} 

O meatotino fa‘asolopito a aiga o se vaega o lo tatou talafa‘asolopito. E maua mai ai lagona o lo tatou fa‘asinomaga ma iloa ai tatou ma le mea na tatou o mai ai. O meatotino fa‘asolopito e mafai ona aofia ai ata, tusi e teu ai ata, tusi, ma pepa tāua.

O le taulimaina ma le teuina o fa‘aputuga o meatotino a o tatou aiga e fai lea ma ala o le umi ona malu puipuia ai. O nei ta‘iala o le a fesoasoani iā te oe mo le fa‘asaoina o meatotino fa‘asolopito a lou aiga mo augā tupulaga o le lumana‘i.

_{Family archives are part of our history. We draw a sense of identity from knowing who we are and where we’ve come from. Archives may include photographs, albums, letters, and important documents. Handling and storage of our family collections directly impacts how long they last. These guidelines will help you preserve your family archives for future generations.}

ACCESS THE TOOLKIT

This week is a time for all our Samoan people in Aotearoa to celebrate and share our culture and language with everyone. O le manulauti lea ua fa'asalalau atu mo le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa, "Tapena sou ōso mo lau malaga" (prepare yourself a gift for your travels).

The theme of the week urges us to prepare for everything we may need as we go on life’s journey. It highlights the need to respect and share the gifts of our life’s journey with others. Ōso (gifts) such as alofa (love) and tatalo (prayers) build, nurture and strengthen our relationships, with both aiga (family) and uo (friends).

We are excited to be working with our community online this year and sharing more about our Samoan measina and stories at Auckland Museum. I am particularly excited about our first Samoan zoom talanoa, on the wooden and tuāniu selu in our collection. This week we are respecting and sharing some of our Museum’s Samoan measina to add to your life journeys and ours.

Find out more about the measina Olivia is holding here. 

The insect life of Samoa is relatively understudied, but we do know that the butterflies (pepe) and moths (pepe lelefua) of Samoa are diverse, with some unique to the region.

For Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa, Samoa Language Week, Melissa Kirk (R T Shannon Assistant Curator of Entomology) takes a closer look at some specimens in our collection.

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For many Samoan families the Tuiga (ceremonial headdress) is an icon of tradition and a priceless family heirloom.

In this blog Talei Tu'inukuafe Collection Manager, Pacific examines the building blocks of Tuiga, and how they come together to form a distinct symbol of cultural and national identity. 

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In this blog, Associate Curator, Documentary Heritage (Pacific) Leone Samu Tui and Seulupe Dr Falaniko Tominiko (Deputy Chair of Auckland Museum’s Pacific Advisory Group) reflect on the significance of a measina held in Auckland Museum’s manuscript collection: an unpublished tusi fa’alupega, or collection of Samoan chiefly titles and village salutations, compiled in 1902.  

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“Our history is written, not in books,
but in our mats”

When Queen Sālote made this revelatory statement¹, she was speaking of kie hingoa or ‘named mats,’ the most important category of fine mats that exist within Tonga. Worn for specific occasions and handed down over many generations, these fine mats were given personal names and accrued detailed genealogies and histories over time.

In a similar fashion, the ‘ie toga (fine mats) that have historically been prized and fiercely coveted by the people of Samoa, are those that have significant stories and histories associated with them, or that have been connected with people or families of great renown. These qualities give the ‘ie toga immense mana that is recalled each time it is shown or worn.     

History has indeed been written in this particular ‘ie toga (AWMM 1932.193, 17457) which was gifted to the museum in 1932. The donor, Major-General George Richardson had retired from the position of New Zealand Administrator of Western Samoa in 1928. As a parting gift he was presented with this ‘ie toga by the Fono of Faipule, a legislative body of 27 Samoan Faipule (district representatives) who each signed it. While the makers of the ‘ie toga are not yet known its significance and value are evident in the fineness of the weave and in the red sega feathers stitched along the border.  

By 1928, New Zealand’s administration of Western Samoa had already been marred by multiple grievances and characterized by a poor understanding of Samoan culture and customs, and the continued misuse of legislation which undermined the traditional authority of matai (chiefs). Just one year after the gifting of this ‘ie toga, the most heinous incident of colonial brutality, Black Saturday (28 December 1929), would take place as New Zealand military police fired into a parade of Mau demonstrators in Apia, killing 11 Samoans including Mau leader Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III.²

This ‘ie toga represents a crucial moment in time; the Fono of Faipule had only been legally recognized by the New Zealand Administration five years earlier.³ These Faipule were perhaps unaware of the continued struggles they and the Samoan people would face but this ‘ie toga provides a glimpse into the fraught early histories that would shape the nation in decades to come. It speaks to the tautua of these Faipule, some of whom went on to directly take part in the Mau movement for independence. Their names, handwritten on this ‘ie toga, stand not only as a record, but as a marker and witness for how they used their voices to shape Samoan history.