Talofa Alofas! Which means, “Hello Loves” in my native language. Samoan! growing up, I remember no one really knew what that was. You had to mention to people who looked confused “it’s like Hawaiian.” Or ”Do you watch wrestling? Okay, well like The Rock.” Ha-ha.
Living in a small town, the only Samoans that lived in town was my family. No really, not talking about how everyone is related, I mean literally only my mama’s side of the family ha. If you remember in my blog about me, I was raised in Walla Walla, WA.
My small town, had majority of Caucasians and Hispanics. So, we were either Black Americans to everyone or Mexican. HA.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved being the only Samoans around. I found it funny when people would try to guess what we were. Especially, when it came to my siblings.
In Samoan culture, if a family member can not have kids, or isn’t fully ready to take care of their children, they always give them up to one of their family members that are trying or able to take care of the child or children. In my case. My birth mother wasn’t ready. She was going through a lot during that time with my birth dad. and so, my birth mom gave me up to her sister, who I am named after, and her husband. Whom, I call my parents. Tragically, the parents who raised me both passed away. My father passed away when I was turning 1 years old and my mother passed away when I was turning 6 years old. After they passed away my grandparents (mama & papa) took care of my brother, sister, and I. We have other brothers and sisters as well, but, we stayed with our grandparents.
So, when people would see us, my siblings are very Asian looking, Ha-ha. You can see the Samoan in there but, if you didn’t know what nationality that was, you would think they were Asian or even Hispanic, and I was either a Black American or Hispanic. Ha. But, we are also mixed. Which, also means, Afakasi. Meaning, we aren’t full blooded.
The best part of being Samoan is showing off your culture. There is nothing better than being Polynesian, and yes I’m being bias ha-ha. Every time there was a graduation in our family. EVERYONE would know which family belonged to us. We were always the loudest, with our CHEEHOO, We had the biggest group of family, and it was always
the best seeing people’s reaction to our candy leis, money leis, and especially our traditional money dance, which is known as our Siva Taualuga. It has nothing to do with showing off. But, having PRIDE! Showering our loved ones, and making sure they know that they are LOVED and how PROUD we are of them. That is what it’s all about. LOVE.
To all the Non-Polynesians, have you ever seen those nice Tribal Tattoos? They are commonly on the sleeve of the arm or the leg. In Samoan language they are called a Tatau. What a lot of you don’t know is, majority of them, did not get their Tattoo done the traditional way. Traditional tattoos or the Tatau is a highly and very respectful tattoo to get, it is called the Pe‘a. It goes from the waist to the knees. This way is way more painful. The master tattooist, known as the Tufuga, he uses pieces of bone, turtle shell, and wood. And it takes many weeks to complete.
So, when people ask me, if I get mad when I see people who aren’t of our culture or even dating, or getting married to a Polynesian with a tribal tattoo, Yes! My answer is YES! Every tribal has a meaning! And it all represents our family and OUR traditions! Why are you trying to get something you know nothing about?! Because, you think it’s cool?! NO! It’s very disrespectful to us! It’s something our parents take pride in. Especially, when we choose to get it. So, please. If you aren‘t Polynesian, if you aren’t dating one, or getting married to one. Don’t get one!
Polynesian Culture is all about God, Family, Love, Respect, Music, Sports, and we can’t forget about our food (; You will always hear your mama telling your friends “You look hungry! Go eat! You better go eat!” Ha-Ha. The thing about a Samoan family, is they treat everyone as their own family. So, yeah, you will get talked too the same way we all get talked too, if your friend didn’t have any respect for their parents. You can bet they did after being at your house Ha-ha! Shoot, your mama or papa might even make your friends go to Church with you, (cause that was the only way they could sleepover. Ha-Ha.) Speaking about church, we never missed a Sabbath! My family is Seventh-Day Adventist’s. We would open the Sabbath, Friday sun down and close Sabbath, Saturday sun down. Not all Samoans are Seventh-Day. But, all of them are God Fearing!
If you know my family and I well, you know how much loved ones we’ve lost. Funerals are huge in Samoan culture and they can last days to a week.
I feel, if an average person went through as many deaths or seen death, like my family and I have. They would probably break or blame God. We see it as God’s Will for us. He reminds us in the promise, that we will be reunited again. And we will see our loved ones again, with no pain, or suffering! Some, will call us delusional. Believing a promise from a being we haven’t seen. But, we call it faith!
That is Fa’a Samoa. (The Samoan Way.) CHEEEEEHOOOOOOO🇼🇸🇦🇸
All my Love, until next time!
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