You may have noticed. Many Samoan families have a preference for arranging their living rooms in a large, inward-facing oblong or oval formation, with the backs of all the couches and armchairs pushed up against the walls. If you know anything about life in Samoa, you might guess that this practice is just a remnant […]
The Creation Story in Samoan (with audio)
The best way to learn a language is to just dive in and learn it, right? As part of my goal to speak Samoan like a matai, I’ve been trying to stay immersed in the Samoan language – as much as I can in New Zealand. I’ve been hanging out with my matai uncles, listening […]
How to Greet a Samoan Matai (Chief)
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 well, or for those in authority over us […]
12 Alagaupu (Samoan Proverbs) about Family
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. At LONG last (island time, […]
![Matai – How to become a Samoan Chief [Part 2]](https://i0.wp.com/1samoana.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/1samoana1.jpg?fit=600%2C426&ssl=1)
Matai – How to become a Samoan Chief [Part 2]
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 become a candidate for […]
20 Most Asked Questions About Samoa – Answered by Samoans
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 then you realize the world is a big place […]
15+ Samoan names for your lover (from old Samoan love songs)
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 mushy nicknames we also have in the Samoan language. […]
How Samoans treat their elders
In general, the Samoan attitude towards aging is pretty similar to other cultures. To us, old age is wisdom and accomplishment. It’s a time to sit back and enjoy the spoils of life. But how do younger Samoans treat our elders? Samoan culture emphasizes alofa (love) and fa’aaloalo (respect). We believe that our elders are […]
The Lord’s Prayer in Samoan (with video)
It’s been a crazy several weeks on this side of the One Samoana screen. I could write a very boring book about the ‘technical issues’ that took this entire site off the interwebs for over a month. (Summary: if you’re going to run a website, find a webhost who loves you. Ours didn’t. We had […]
A Samoan Matai and Language Challenge
I love the Samoan culture the way I love my family: I would protect and defend it with my life I don’t always agree with it and sometimes we fight One aspect of our culture I always seem to be in the ring with is our matai system, or fa’amatai. On the one hand, fa’amatai […]
