Pacific Education Centre - Samoan faamatai classes...

 Last year, I enrolled in a Samoan class that was very intense, practical and challenging but I learnt a lot from it. It culminated in an evening where we were able to share with our families the things that we had learnt in: lauga (speech making), faalupega (traditional words associated with each village) and so much more.

From that experience, I wanted to continue my studies and got the chance yesterday to follow my learning path and enrolled with the PEC Pasifika Education Centre at Manukau to pursue my interest of learning more about the 'faamatai' (chiefly protocols) in a bilingual context with other people of the similar interests.

Our tutor is a former colleague of mine whom I met when I was working as a facilitator for the Ministry of Education secondary teaching language contracts. He and his wife both are/were secondary trained teachers who both taught Samoan language in Auckland secondary schools and have been sharing their knowledge with the next generation/s through PEC for a number of years.

One of the first things we had to do was to talk about ourselves 'o ai a'u?' (who am I?) in a Samoan context which involved talking about our parents villages, our names and matai title/s and what we wanted to achieve in the class. I was first up and because I was familiar with this having learnt the formal introductions in my last class, I was able to talk about my parents village associations, my chiefly title of Faalavaau, which comes from Siufaga, Falelatai and my hopes for the class.

I think for me, it felt like a safe environment and I learnt so much in that 2 hours of listening to our tutor and in the Q and A times we had. It's a time that we are able to reflect on what we know about the faaSamoa (Samoan way of doing things) and the new information that we are learning. I feel blessed that I am able to be a part of this class and look forward to the many new things that we are about to learn.

I reflected yesterday and realise that it is now 16 years since I was bestowed with my father's first chiefly title and at first I was quite scared and ashamed of not knowing how to reply and talk about things as a matai but in pursuing knowledge and understanding of these ancient forms of communication, I'm finding that there is so much more that I want to know and that I no longer feel afraid of my own faaSamoa.

Therefore, cast your net out wide and deep so that you might catch some big fish...
P.S. If you are interested in enrolling in these free courses you can contact PEC on: www.pacificislandeducation.co.nz