Dance Tahiti!

While all cultures around the world have their own dances, none seem to be more synonymous with dancing than the cultures of Polynesia, and none more famous than the Tahitian tāmūrē (tah-moo-ray). Most people in the world will be able to describe Tahitian dancing in...

Act Like A Local

My Samoan dad raised us on old recordings of Hawai’ian comedians, like Rap Reiplinger, Don Ho and other Hawaiian artists. By the time I visited Hawai’i, I knew basic Hawai’ian Pidgin, and the proper ways and times to wear an ie lavalava, or “sarong” . I didn’t realize...

Father’s Day Traditions in Tonga

It’s early in the month of June, and families are already looking forward to celebrate Father’s Day. Like entering into the new millennium, my island Kingdom of Tonga has to beat the world in celebrating Father’s Day. In Tonga, Father’s Day is celebrated on the Sunday...

Life as a Samoan

Am I like a Samoan? Besides professional wrestling, I had never met or seen a Samoan person until I was in sixth grade. Seeing men like the Rock and Rikishi wrestler), or various other members of the Anoa’i Family, caused me to believe that all Samoans had larger than...

The People of the Sea

My oldest grandson is a mix of a lot of ethnicities–he is, on one half–Maori, Tongan, Hawaiian, Chinese, Samoan with traces of Fijian and on the other half a European mix from Norway to the Netherlands. His name reflects this mixture, influenced by his...

Afatasi

That’s me – afatasi, a Samoan word describing someone who is part Samoan and part something else. It literally means half of one. My grandmother comes from the village of Nu’uuli on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa. Here at the Polynesian...