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uthor Robert Louis Stevenson had some tantalising choices when searching for a tropical paradise to call home. Apparently he discounted Hawaii, Tahiti and Kiribati before settling on Samoa in the late 1880’s, building a sprawling hillside home on Upolu Island. Though poor health meant that he passed away just four years later, the man known affectionately as Tusitala by Samoans quickly grew to love the country for its friendly people and agreeable climate. In the intervening years nothing much has changed – the people still throw their arms open to visitors and the tropical climate is hard to beat. Often overshadowed by her Fijian cousins and Cook Islands to the east, Samoa sashays her rhythmic hips to her own unique Polynesian beat, charming all who come under her beguiling spell. Samoa’s gentle pace of life is underpinned by Fa’a Samoa, a 3,000-year-old cultural tradition that translates to ‘the Samoan way’. Fa’a Samoa encompasses respect and honour for family, country and church. Chiefs command the highest respect and are revered. At last count there were over 360 churches providing succour for a population of around 200,000. Elaborate churches dominate villages, forming the central hub for the community with Sundays a nationwide day of rest in a laid back country that rarely gets out of first gear. While Christianity was imported into the Polynesian Triangle by missionaries in the early 1800’s, other traditions like tatau, or tattoo, date back thousands of years. Despite the missionary’s insistence that tattooing be banned, linking it to pagan beliefs and attendant debaucheries, the practice remains an integral part of Polynesian spiritual and cultural life from birth. Polynesian tattoos are generally recognisable by their beautiful geometric designs. Small triangles, checkerboards, dotted or solid lines, straight, in arches or spirals appear on the belly, back, arms and legs. Traditionally, men of the Society Islands, the Tuamotos and Hawaii have heavily tattooed torsos while in New Zealand and
Samoa faces and legs are most heavily decorated. In places like the Marquesas and Micronesia men’s entire bodies are intricately tattooed. Male tattoos are linked to ancient warriors which draw upon hypnotic motifs to reinforce the resistance of body armour. Eyelid tattoos were supposed to increase the wearers authority while certain tattooed figures had talismanic significance, bestowing on the bearer protection and power. In the Hawaiian Islands fishermen adorned their ankles with a tattooed ring of points, believing themselves protected against sharks. A motif resembling the swells of the Great Ocean tattooed on Marquesan shoulders seemingly gave canoe paddlers exceptional vigour to combat large seas during ocean passages. Polynesian women on the other hand are more commonly tattooed on the lips, hands, buttocks and the calves of their legs. Less common are breast and belly tattoos. Samoan women’s malu covers the thighs from groin to knees in delicate geometric designs. Children were tattooed throughout their childhood with the first elbow tattoos related to nourishment and the child’s presence at the family table. As girls got older one or both hands were tattooed which permitted them to prepare family meals. As they reached puberty ritualist tattooing allowed girls to participate fully in village life, and in particular, to marry. Graceful arches adorned their buttocks and upper thighs, and, later, their fingers, necks and ears as an aesthetic alternative to jewellery. In the Marquesas tattooing of women’s hands was a prerequisite to them anointing dead bodies with coconut oil. Hawaiian women had their breasts decorated with lines radiating outwards from their nipples, stomachs adorned with vertical lines and arms, wrists and fingers marked with linear designs, Traditionally, young girls frowned upon the advances of a non-tattooed suitor as they were deemed to be lacking in strength and courage. These days a Samoan man’s tattoo or
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