Samoan Language Week a time to reflect on reo ‘in decline’

Talofa. Here in Aotearoa, it is te wiki o te Reo Samoan, starting from May 26th till June 1st. The theme for Samoan Language Week is ‘Tautua i le alofa, manuia le lumana’i – Serve in love for a blessed future’. Like many indigenous languages today, Samoan reo is in decline.

Starting in the 1870’s, Germany, the United Kingdom, and America were fighting each other to own the Pacific Island chain that makes up Samoa. It was a global activity of the time – with all colonial powers wishing to extend their mana by owning as many offshore lands as possible. The 1889 Tripartite Convention, between America, Germany and the United Kingdom, carved up Samoa, a fully resourced and peopled Pacific archipelago country. This 1889 Convention saw the United Kingdom given all of Tonga, along with parts of the Solomons, Bougainville, and a bit of West Africa, while giving up their claim to Samoa. So, we ended up with German Samoa and American Samoa.

Germany took over Samoa, in their minds, for the betterment of the tagata / people of Samoa. As part of the 1889 Convention, Germany saw Samoan as an official language, declaring protection for Samoan kawa, tikanga, and reo.

Despite the Convention, in 1914 King George V, sent the British Empire N.Z. Expeditionary Force from Aotearoa to Apia, a quiet Samoan seaside resort. German Samoa was now under New Zealand control. Samoa gained back its independence 1 January 1962 and became known as Western Samoa.

Samoa and Aotearoa are linked by whakapapa and the common ancestor Kiwa. Amongst the peoples of Samoa and Aotearoa there are similarities of the same gods, creation, and evolution. My Ngāti Samoa cousin, Mesepa Malaulau, says earth and sky had a child called Tagaloa of the Sky - creator of life and universe, supreme ruler, progenitor and chief of all gods.

Adding to this is our shared history of the waka Tarai Po. This Samoan-built waka eventually became Tākitimu, the voyaging waka of Ngāti Kahungunu. Down the generations the waka was renamed by captains. Starting in Samoa as Tarai Po, it went through a series of name changes; Te Manu Karere, Te Pori o Kare, Te Orau Toa Ki Iti, Te Tuna Moe Vai, Numiao, Te Tika a Te Tuahine, Te Takipu, Taki Tumu, and finally Tākitimu. It is this Samoan ocean-going waka Tarai Po, arriving here as the waka Tākitimu, which is the binding Pacific whakapapa from Upolu in Samoa to either Tauranga Moana, or Whanga-o-keno off the East Cape of the North Island, depending on which version you go with. Each of these different waka names is a repository of knowledge, recording its movement, historical events, people and their times - transgenerational knowledge passed down from Samoa to Aotearoa.

Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa binds the life, whakapapa and entitlement between Ngāti Samoa and Ngāti Kahungunu. A whakapapa with the same gods, the same tipuna, the same waka, on the same ocean. This is Samoa, Aotearoa, and Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay today.

Published in the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper on 25 May 2024 and written by Te Hira Henderson, Curator Maori Taonga at MTG Hawke’s Bay.

Image: Katinia, 2022, a Samoan embroidered and woven mat by Serene Hodgman. Collection of Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi 2023/17

27 May 2024

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