Prayers and gifts in the other Samoa

Monday, 21 July 2008

The biggest event American Samoa has ever staged, is underway. The 10^th Pacific Festival of the Arts, celebrates the culture and traditions of the Pacific island nations and territories, as the event has done for decades. But the festival is also an assertion of the Pacific way during a period of unprecedented global change.

It’s quite interesting to come here and witness this in a territory that is so obviously influenced and connected with the United States. One acquaintance in Apia referred to American Samoa as beyond the edge of the “real” Pacific.

Yet the dignified solemnity of the thanksgiving church service on Sunday convinced me that this is still very much a place of the Pacific. At least 700 people gathered at the Kanana Fou Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa. The bells tolled, hymns rang out, and people from all over the Pacific sang and prayed to celebrate their cultural bonds and connections.

The welcome rituals continued the next morning, ahead of the evening’s opening ceremony. An ‘ava (kava) ceremony took place by the Utulei foreshore, performed by a large group of chiefs, distinguished by their traditional tattoos. Many of the 2000 delegates from the region were there. But the ‘ava served by the chiefs were reserved for Governor Togiola Tulafonu and high ranking dignitories including Samoa’s Head of State and New Zealand’s Maori monarch.

Being from Fiji, I have always appreciated the sanctity of the kava ceremony. And in recent years, my closest friends have occasionally even accorded me short ceremonies during my visits. They have been simple and dignified, mainly expressing their friendship and acknowledging my visit. Then I have seen the Fijian ceremony at the highest levels for chiefs, state visits and the like.

But there are some fundamental differences, especially in the high ranking ceremonies. Today, females are not included in kava ceremonies as officiants in Fiji, but women do take part in the rituals in the Samoas. In Fiji, the only role for women was in the times when young virgins were required to chew the kava root in preparation for its use in the soporific drink. Here in Samoa, matai (chiefly) women are often part of ceremonies. In Fiji, a bowl of kava is poured and solemnly carried by one person to the recipient who drinks it all at once. In Samoa, a “tulafale’ announces the names of the recipients, by order of rank, to onlookers. Then the “ava is passed on to at least one other person before it is delivered to the dignitary, who sometimes spills a bit before drinking it.

Today another ceremony followed the kava ritual – Faa lele ga pepe (fluttering of the butterflies) is the presentation of fine handicrafts to guests. As we moved into this last stage of the morning ceremony, the heavens opened. From the Utulei foreshore, some seriously gusty winds brought driving rain. But throughout, there was no loss of dignity for the women nor the fine mats they carried for their guests.

As the rain sprayed on me, my camera and my recording equipment, I took one of my favourite pictures of this Pacific trip.

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