Samoan History

By: Brittney Poulson

Table of contents:
 Language and maps
 Beaches
 Music and Dancing
 Tattoos
 Fire dancing
 Housing
 Samoan dresses
 foods
 Samoan language and maps
 Numeral Samoan English
 1 tasi one
 2 lua two
 3 tolu three
 4 fa four
 5 lima five
 6 ono six
 7 fitu seven
 8 valu eight
 9 iva nine
 10 sefulu ten
 11 sefulu ma le tasi eleven
 12 sefulu ma le lua twelve
 20 luafulu or lua sefulu twenty
 30 tolugafulu or tolu sefulu thirty
 Languages:
Samoan and English. Samoan is a major Polynesian dialect, and as such, is
similar to Hawaiian, Tongan, Tahitian, Maori and other island languages. It is
not necessarily mutually intelligible with the other dialects, although many
words are identical or nearly identical, with identical or similar meanings.
Reduplicated words — such as Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa —
are common in Polynesian languages; but many people do not realize that the
letter 'g' in Samoan represents the unreleased 'ng' sound as in the English
word 'singer' — not the released-G sound as in the word 'finger.'
Also interesting, the sounds represented by the letters 'k' and 't' are completely
interchangeable in vernacular Samoa with changing the meaning of the
words. For example, there's no meaningful difference between talofa and
kalofa, which both mean 'hello.'
Most Polynesian languages also use regular and longer-sounding vowels, with
the latter sometimes marked with a macron over the letter. Polynesian long
vowels are not to be confused with English long and short vowels, as in the
words "hate" and "hat," respectively. While English vowels can actually be
lengthened in pronunciation, that doesn't change the meaning of the word;
whereas in Samoan the use of a long vowel vs. the same vowel in its
regular form changes the meaning of the word.
For example, mama means 'ring,' mamä means 'clean' and mämä means
'lightweight' (please note we're using a European-style umlaut over the long
vowels since most computers do not have fonts with macron capability). So, if
you want to impress a Samoan, lengthen the first vowel in the word Sämoa.
 More Samoan language
English Samoan
Yes ‘ioe
ʻO le aliʻi, a chief. No leai
ʻO le tamaloa, a man. Please fa’amolemole
Thank you fa’afetai
ʻO le tama, a boy. That’s all right ‘ua lelei
ʻO le poʻa, a male Big-small tele-la’itiiti
Quick-slow vave/tope-gese
animal. Early-late vave-tuai
ʻO le tamaitaʻi, a lady. Cheap-expensive taugofie-taugata
Near-far latalata-mamao
ʻO le fafine, a woman. Hot-cold vevela-malulu
ʻO le teine, a girl. Full-empty tumu-gaogao
Easy-difficult faigofie-faigata
ʻO le manu fafine, a Heavy-lite mamafa-mama
female animal. Open-shut tatala-tapuni
Right-wrong sa’o-sese
Old-new tuai-fou
Beautiful-ugly ‘aulelei-’auleaga
 Somoan Beaches
The Samoan Archipelago lies shrouded in a light
fragrant mist which is easily
penetrated by the blazing sun. Cool mountain breezes
make things very comfortable
here during the southern winter months. Dormant
volcanoes, deep forests and dazzling
lagoons are abundant

The road around the island of Savai'i

has only recently been paved. There are
no
towns only little villages. It's a place
where you don't feel the presence of the
twentieth century much. Lavalava-
dressed people, roaming pigs and small
tamu
plantations on the outskirts of the
volcanic jungle clad interior.
Sundays in Samoa is quiet days. Early in the morning
blue smoke drifts lazily through the villages and
everything is bathed in soft golden sunshine.
Beautiful singing is heard from all directions and the
roads are swarming with women in white laced
dresses and fine hats and men dressed in newly
ironed lavalavas, shirts and ties.
 Music made by somoan dancing
The two main instruments used before the Europeans arrived were the Pate and
the Fala, the pate is a hollowed out log drum that comes in various sizes and the
fala is a rolled up mat beaten with sticks. The instruments weren’t the only thing
the Samoan’s used to make music. They used their dancing in which made the
music more essential. To make different sounds in their music they clapped their
hands to produce different range if sounds in the Samoan music. After the
Europeans arrived the instrumentation increased dramatically, two more
instruments were developed that are now synonymous with Samoan music, the
Sielo and the Ukele. The sielo is a stringed instrument made from a broomstick
attached to a largish box that acts as a sounding board. The ukele is a small
guitar like instrument but with only four strings.
 Tatoo’s in samoa culture
There is no documented date or written background of how and when the Samoan Tattoo, or Tatau,
originated, because of the fact that back in Polynesia well even before the Europeans had arrived,
every event was spoken by word of mouth.
There was no form of writing or transcribing, it was all by word of mouth until the missionaries
arrived, the first being in the the early 1800's by various denominations,eg - Wesley/Togan
missionaries, Tahiti missionaries,
 Fire Dancing

The Samoan Fire-knife

dance or "Nifo Oti" is one
of the spectacular
highlights of Paradise Cove.
 Traditional Samoa fire dancing is one of the great
cultural experiences of Samoa. These are performed
at all the major hotels in various forms. The most
glamourous is at Aggie Grey's in Apia with
professional male and female dancers and
traditional costumes of mat dresses and flower
garlands performing traditional dance with the
highlight being the Samoan Fire Dance.

The dance routine is performed to upbeat rhythmic

drumming, hand clapping and singing. A dance
troupe can include from 2 to as many as ten rows of
dancers, with the men jumping up and down and
the women moving gracefully from side to side. The
dance recalls stories from the past, from farewells
to loved ones, to great fishing expeditions and war
campaigns. The spectacular fire dance is performed
by men and boys, some as young as six years old
only and is a skilful display of handling fire sticks in
a rotational manner.
Samoan Houses
Some samoan housing in samoa!
Samoan
dresses

The traditional ladies clothing is the puletasi

which is a matching skirt and tunic with samoan
designs. The lava lava is a sarong which made
worn by men or women. They are different
patterns and colors but tend to be plain for men
who may wear it as part of an offical uniform.

Samoan Taro Foods
Samoan food tends not to be highly spiced or seasoned and consists of a number of
cooked ingredients that are relatively unfamiliar or prepared in unusal ways to most
Westerners such as cooked breadfuit, taro, taro leaves, cooked green bananas and raw
fish.
 Umu
 An umu is the traditional method used by Samoan's for cooking food. A fire is built and
stones placed on it. When the fire is down to the embers green bananas, breadfruit,
taro, fish, and lu'au are placed on the stones. When everything to be cooked has been
placed on the umu, it is covered with banana fronds and left to cook.
 Oka
 Most cultures eat raw fish: smoked salmon, sushi, Bismark herring, rollmops etc. Oka is
the way Samoans prepare and serve raw fish. It consists of small bits of fish that have
been left to marinate in a mixture of lemon juice, coconut cream, salt and onions.
 Lu'au/Palusami
 Lu'au is probably the dish that Samoa is most famous for and once eaten will never be
forgotten. It is made from the leaves of the taro plant and coconut cream, however
onions now tend to be added to it. The coconut cream, onions and some taro are
wrapped up in whole taro leaves and, ideally, cooked in an umu. When cooked the
parcel of taro leaves is opened and the contents eaten.
Pe'epe'e
 A general purpose sauce made from coconut cream and onions and eaten with taro,
breadfruit or anything you like.
Taro foods look like this!

Taro Potatoes Taro delights

These are foods samoan eat

Oka food

Umu foods
 Samoa population:

Samoa: 180,000 (July Facts

2000 est.); America
Samoa: 69,000 (July
2000 est.). Significant
populations of
Samoans also live in
New Zealand, Australia,
Hawaii, California, Utah
and Missouri.
Samoa consists of four main islands: Upolu, with the
capital at Apia; the largest island of Savaii; and two INTERESTING FACTS: The Samoans are
small islands between them: Manono and Apolima. known throughout Polynesia as the
American Samoa lies 40 miles east of Upolu. Tutuila, "happy" people because of their enjoyment
with its deep harbor at Pago Pago, is the main island of life and their good-spirited nature.
and administrative center. The smaller islands of the
Famous author Robert Louis Stevenson,
Manu'a group — Ta'u, Ofu and Olosega — are located
about 70 miles to the east. known in Samoa as Tusitala or "story-
Independent Samoa has 2,860 sq. km. of land, mostly teller," fell in love with the happiness and
divided between the two major islands of Upolu and giving spirit of the Samoan people and
Savaii. It is slightly smaller than Rhode Island. America settled here. He is buried on Mt. Vaea in
Samoa has 199 sq. km. of land, most of it on the main independent Samoa.
island of Tutuila. It is slightly larger than Washington,
D.C.