MATAI SAMOA: A SAMOAN PATERFAMILIAS

65 minutes Colour 1989
Film-maker: George Milner

This film is a valuable treatment of archival footage that George Milner shot while conducting field research in 1955 and 1959. The footage (eighteen minutes of the total film) focuses on traditional Samoan activities, such as fishing, cooking, house-building, hand-weaving, and bark-cloth making in preparation for the formal installation (saofa'i) of a Samoan matai (a male titleholder responsible for the welfare, prosperity and good behaviour of his extended family). This is one of the most important Samoan rites of passage. The ceremonies which validate his assumption of a new status are shown, both within the extended family and at the level of the village, whose existing titleholders formally acknowledge the new matai's right to a seat in council. Their approval is marked by the acceptance of gifts of goods and valuables, especially fine mats, which are of great importance. The musical sound track is of traditional songs recorded during the same period.

Christina Toren, a South Pacific specialist, then interviews Reverend Lalomilo Kamu, a Samoan scholar currently at the University of Birmingham, about the previous footage and Samoan customs. In particular they discuss the formal preparation of a bowl of kava; the role of the taupou (ceremonial village virgin); the making of sinnet, the braided cord made from the fibres of coconut husk; the role of Samoan houses; cooking; the informal schooling of the young; the preparation of bark-cloth; and the process of hand-weaving. The interview provides a rare opportunity for viewers to hear a scholar from a filmed group comment on and explain the symbolism behind the pictures captured by the camera.

The interview is quite detailed and is particularly useful for specialists in Polynesia or other regions of the South Pacific. Catalogue number (VHS): RA/VHS179 £8.

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R.P. Gilson, 1970. Samoa 1830 to 1900. Chapters 1 and 2. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

M. Mead, 1930. Social Organisation of Manua. Bishop Museum, Honolulu (Bishop Museum Bull. 1976).

G.B. Milner, 1968. Problems of the Structure of Concepts in Samoa. An Investigation of Vernacular Statement and Meaning. PhD thesis, London School of Economics, London.

P. Schoeffel (Meleisea), 1979. Daughters of Sina: A Study of Gender, Status and Power in Western Samoa. PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.

B. Shore, 1982. Sala'ilua: A Samoan Mystery. Columbia University Press, New York.