One Samoana | Samoan Language and Culture

Le Api | The Notebook

Scribbled by a Hamo Geek Girl, One Samoana’s Le Api is a collection of thoughts and stories about the language and culture of Samoan people. Browse some of our popular topics:

The Matai Handbook

Tatau Samoa | The Samoan Tattoo

How to ‘BE’ Samoan

Gagana Samoa | The Samoan Language

Musings about our beautiful Samoan language – its stunning poetry, its stinging power and all the tricky metaphors especially in our ‘higher’ speak.

Alaga’upu | Samoan Proverbs

Translating Samoan Lyrics

Translating Naumati Lagona

Tama a Samoa – A modern classic of Samoan music

Umukuka | The Cooking Place (Kitchen)

We love our Samoan food! Join us in One Samoana’s Umukuka for a celebration of some of our favourite, iconic Samoan dishes.

Desserts & Treats for CupTea

Recipe Discussions

Stories about Samoan Food

Matai: A Complicated System of Chiefs

Le Api, The Matai Handbook | 20 Comments

Matai is the Samoan word for leader, or chief, or even (in the poetic sense) father. Samoan society is organized by family, and each family has its own matai titles, which are connected to certain districts, villages and plots of family land. And that was the short...

How to Greet a Samoan Matai (Chief)

Le Api, The Matai Handbook | 0 Comments

The heartbeat of Samoan culture is love and respect, or fa'aaloalo. How we greet people is a very public demonstration of this respect. Like a lot of languages, we have informal greetings for our peers and friends and then formal greetings for people we don't know as...

12 Alagaupu (Samoan Proverbs) about Family

Alagaupu ma Muagagana, The Matai Handbook | 22 Comments

A few years ago I told you about my grandfather's api (notebook) full of alagaupu that I wanted to study and really understand. I was going to look at twelve of those proverbs, consult with the Samoan cultural experts in my life then share with you what I had learned....

Matai – How to become a Samoan Chief [Part 2]

Le Api, The Matai Handbook | 4 Comments

This is the second part of our series on The Path to Becoming a Samoan Chief. Please read Part 1 first, if you haven't already. Part 1 gives you a bit of background - where do matai titles come from? Who decides how your family's titles are distributed? How do you...

20 Most Asked Questions About Samoa – Answered by Samoans

The Samoan Islands, Le Api | 0 Comments

We've all seen it. You're Googling something to do with Samoa and you see from the search results that others have been asking questions about Samoan people, too - but they're really basic questions that you thought everybody knew the answers to by now. Surely! But...

15+ Samoan names for your lover (from old Samoan love songs)

Gagana Samoa | 4 Comments

What is your favourite loved up pet name for your significant other? It is babe? Baby? Bae? Honey? Hun? Sweetheart? Sweetie? Darling? Dear? So many Samoan couples I know have adopted these English terms of affection, but until quite recently, I had no idea how many...

Village One Samoana

Were you once a One Samoana ‘Native’? If you were a member of the One Samoana social network (which ran from 2008 – 2012), then a you may recognize some of these Native-written blogs from a heartbeat and a lifetime ago.

Discussion

Philia on 12 Alagaupu (Samoan Proverbs) about FamilyThank you for sharing our cultural knowledge. I know that some of us have heard…
Melvin on Samoan Etiquette – You sit down, too!@Arthur Brigham Omg. This is similar with the Chuukese in Micronesia! When you p…
Fplk on How do you like your… povi masima?I grew up in South Auckland eating Povi Masima, this as well as mutton flaps are…
MATs on Matai: A Complicated System of ChiefsThis is awesome, thank you.
Soonalole on The Lord’s Prayer in Samoan (with video)can you make a new prayer for the day including thanks forgiving and so on in sa…