Local women gather to brainstorm on ways to
revitalize traditional way of living

Ma'oputasi faipule Rep. Fiasili Haleck joined more than a dozen local women for the Women and Youth Initiative and Brainstorming Meeting held Oct. 25 in the DOC conference room. The get together, hosted by the Department of Youth and Women's Affairs, was to discuss ways to bring back to life the traditional way of living. Seated to the right of Rep. Haleck are Mrs. Lusia Sauni Aulava and Mrs. Akenese Faumuina.

Long time health care professional Mrs. Meri Time fills out a questionnaire that was handed out to every participant of the Women and Youth Initiative and Brainstorming Meeting held in the DOC conference room on Oct. 25 Among the topics discussed were the revitalizing of crafts like sewing and weaving, as well as planting and eating food items that can grow locally.

The Department of Youth and Women’s Affairs hosted the “Women and Youth Initiative and Brainstorming Meeting” today in the DOC conference room where over a dozen local women were present to offer input on ways to revitalize traditional practices like sewing, weaving, cooking, and planting local trees that are used for such things.

The male group was represented in the meeting by two men.

YWA director Leiataua Leuga Turner headed the nearly 3-hour meeting which started with a prayer offered by Mrs. Tofiga Tufele.

Before discussions began, every woman was given a chance to introduce themselves. Most of those in attendance were retirees, nurses, and educators.

The two current sitting female lawmakers, Rep. Mary Lauagaia M. Taufete’e and Rep. Fiasili Puni E. Haleck rounded up the pool of participants which included representatives from six different villages across the territory.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss initiatives and brainstorm on ways to bring back the old days through methods and learned skills like sewing, which is a booming business mostly operated locally by Filipinos.

“If we learned how to sew our own clothes, we would save a lot of money,” Leiataua stressed. She said that if Samoans, particularly women, learned how to sew and cook traditional food items, there would be no need to spend money.

She explained that Samoan people in the old days used to plant and grow their own food, thus alleviating the burden of having to buy it.

Basically, according to Leiataua, for everything that we are spending money on now-a-days, Samoans in ancient times were able to survive by learning how to live off of our natural resources.

For example, in modern times, the majority of people are seen buying beach mats at different stores when in fact, according to Leiataua, mats can be woven by hand at no cost.

The same thing applies to adornments like flower earpieces (sei) and bracelets (taulima).

For food, Leiataua said that there are many traditional Samoan foods that can be cooked and served without having to spend a lot of money. She referred to Samoan delicacies like fa’ausi, pisua, sofe sofe, fai’ai, and ufi – all of which are easy to make and cost nothing to produce.

Leiataua asked how the pisua was being cooked and one of the ladies said that as far as she knows, the traditional masoa isn’t used but instead, substituted with tapioca bought from local stores.

Leiataua then asked Tofiga Tufele, whose husband is current Manu’a District Governor Tufele Li’amatua, to help promote the planting of things like u’a and masoa in the Manu’a Islands.

In addition, Leiataua also stressed the importance of planting other things like the laufala, laupaogo, and lauie.

Leiataua was more than ecstatic when told by Mrs. Meleane Savusa that there was a whole lot of lauie and masoa growing on a mountain near her home in Nuuuli. Savusa announced that anyone who wanted to take a look can come over for a tour.

With that revelation, Leiataua said, “There’s lots of money to be made off of our natural resources.We just have to be open about it and work together.”

The last agenda on the meeting was the concept of training older women to keep up-to-date with technology, through training them on the use of computers and working in groups to promote reading and writing.

“Go out and ask the business people in your community to help you get computer training,” Leiataua told the ladies in attendance.

The meeting concluded with a luncheon and according to Leiataua, this is definitely not the last time meetings like this will be held. As a matter of fact, representatives from other villages are expected to be invited to a similar meeting to offer their input on the same issues.