Cultural Show

I made the boys go with me to a “cultural show.” They grumbled a lot, but when I told them it could count as school for the day, they were a little more agreeable, although nowhere near enthusiastic. Tim and Emelie and Fred weren’t interested in doing something so touristy. When you’ve already spent so much more authentic time in the island culture something like this geared towards regular tourists can seem pretty lame. But I was thinking, “well it’s free, and maybe I’ll learn something I didn’t know.” And wow, it was great. It’s funny because we’ve done/seen all of the these things already: cooking in an Umu, tapa making, wood carving, Polynesian dancing, but at this show they gave us a very detailed step by step demonstration of these things, and it was an opportunity to bring together in one linear flow all of the individual tidbits we’ve learned piecemeal along the way. And it was a forum to ask all of those lingering stupid questions. However, the highlight was something we haven’t seen before… traditional tattoo artistry (where they tap tap tap the cutting tool on your skin). We also learned that Samoa has their own version of a Kava ceremony (like in Fiji). Similar but different.

The host was knowledgeable and charismatic, and it was pretty classic when he was talking about “Samoa Time” and that if you have an appointment with a Samoan, they will most likely be late and Brenden pipes up that, “it’s like that in all the islands.” I thought the guy was going to give B a hard time about what makes him such an expert, but he let it slide. He talked proudly about how Samoa was the first of the Pacific Islands to achieve independence and that they helped pave the way for other island nations to follow. I didn’t bother to point out that since Tonga was never colonized and they were always independent that technically they should be considered first.

The boys were so happy to be there! They taught us how to make the plates out of palm fronds, but of course we knew how to do that already. Brenden told me, “Victoria taught me that a long time ago…”

The men preparing the Umu

Tapa making… here she is using water and a shell to thin and flatten the bark (of a paper mulberry tree).

Getting ready to demonstrate the Samoan “Ava ceremony” The purpose of the ritual is similar as to Fiji, to formally welcome visitors, but many of the details are different.