ASCC Delegation Prepares for 2004 Fale’ula o Fatua’i’upu Conference
By James Kneubuhl, ASCC Press Officer, Monday, June 28, 2004
A delegation from American Samoa will depart for Honolulu this weekend to attend the annual meeting of the Fale’ula o Fatua’i’upu, an international organization dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of the Samoan language. The organization’s 2004 fonotele (annual conference) will take place at the East-West Center on the U.H. Manoa campus throughout next week, bringing together representatives from Samoa, American Samoa, New Zealand, Hawaii and the U.S. mainland, the major locations where the Samoan language is spoken and taught.
PC Galea’i Moaaliitele Tuufuli, who will serve as the next President of the Fale’ula, heads the American Samoa delegation, which includes Dr. Adele Satele-Galea’i, Fale’ula Secretary and President of the American Samoa Community College; itulagi Vice President and Board of Higher Education Chairman Tauililili Leiatua Taulapapa Pemerika; and many of the instructors in Samoan language and culture at ASCC.
Muli’aumasealii Aleni Ripine, Chairman of the ASCC Samoan Language Department and itulagi commissioner, anticipates that the Fale’ula fonotele in Honolulu will draw several hundred participants and observers. "The FAGASA organization, a coalition of Samoan language teachers from New Zealand, will hold their annual conference in conjunction with the Fale’ula fonotle," he said, "and they estimate that about 85 of their members will make the trip to Hawaii."
Muli’aumasealii says the fonotele will feature a full schedule of ceremonies, workshops and presentations. "Besides the formal meeting of the Fale’ula commissioners, this event provides an opportunity for teachers, researchers and writers working with the Samoan language to all share their ideas. The commissioners will hold their business meeting in private, but we welcome the public to attend the other events and presentations during the fonotele." In addition to their duties as commissioners, Muli’aumasealii and Tauiliili will make presentations before the general audience, as will additional ASCC delegates Seuamuli Mataio Fiamalua, Pa’u Pepe Faleatua and Dr. Dan Aga.
Tauiliili will share his recent work on a collection of Samoan fables, rhymes and games titled "Le Tu Manu Ae Tu Logologo." Tauiilili based the title on the proverb expressed as either "E tu manu ae le tu logologo " or "Ua le tu manu ae tu logologo." It refers to decisions made by a village council, which they may decide to "manu" or broadcast through the village. The council may instead choose to "logologo," or let their decisions be conveyed quietly from family to family. The book’s title evokes the latter sense, of information conveyed not by broadcasting it ("le tu manu"), but by sharing it quietly from family to family or person to person ("tu logologo").
Further describing the new book, still in draft form, Tauiliili says, "I’ve spent the last four months working on it. My son Paul, a teacher for the Department of Education, indicated to me a need for reading material in the Samoan language applicable to the local culture and environment. I hope the book will appeal to students from the elementary to the college level, but adults can enjoy some of these stories as well." Tauiliili hopes to solicit comments and suggestions on his text before he completes the final version. "Different parts of Samoa have different ways of telling these fables and rhymes," he explains, "and I look forward to hearing feedback from the diverse group of Samoans who’ll attend the fonotele."
When asked about some of the goals of the Fale’ula, Tauiliili reflected, "In the near future, we would like to see a complete bibliography of written material in the Samoan language, as well as the existing works written about Samoa and the Pacific. More generally, we want to ensure that the American Samoa itulagi stays an active partner in the overall effort to keep the Samoan language alive in the minds of the general population."
Muli’aumasealii also shared his view of the Fale’ula o Fatua’i’upu’s long-term mission: "To make the lives of the worldwide Samoan community more comfortable. I mean more comfortable with their language, with their culture, with their heritage and with themselves. Exchanging ideas with the other itulagi on how to preserve and teach the Samoan language makes this more of a unified effort, rather than isolated groups of us working on our own."
While he spends next week at the fonotele in Honolulu, the students of Muli’aumasealii’s summer session class at ASCC will busy themselves collecting Samoan words for another literary project, an updated Samoan language dictionary. "I’ve only begun the project this summer," he says, "but from now on I think I’ll have my students help me with this every semester, until we have a volume we can present to the Library of Congress."