FA'ALAVELAVE - Building resilience, strengthening family ties and losing your penti in one single phone call
By FotuoSamoa Jackson
I feel like sharing with you all a fagogo about this fascinating topic this week, thoughtfully entitled; Fa'alavelave – Building resilience, strengthening family ties and losing your penti in one single phone call.
Aue! (That is the word you’ll utter in agreement as you read this life changing story that you never really knew you needed in your life).
But first of all, before we get to the losing penti part, let’s set some context, so you can ease yourself into this fagogo. Let’s picture you, a woman or man of Samoan descent, living in a modern world, minding your own business. You have families all over the world, US, Australia, NZ, Samoa and wherever. Yipeeee, “Samoan Pride” is etched onto your uneven chest tattoo. Good for you Sione/Sina/ insert your name here!
But every now and then, you get told that someone has died, or that you need to contribute to a church/village/family event. And so in response, you do, or don’t – because everyone is different.…more
HUMANS OF THE ISLANDS: Jordan Gavet
JORDAN GAVET
Musician, Singer/Song writer
Samoan
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My name is Jordan Gavet and I'm a Musician, Singer/Songwriter. My parents both hail from Samoa. Dad's full Samoan and Mum's Samoan/English, but also has a bit of a Portuguese and Tokelauan heritage. My parents are both NZ born and even though my Dad is full Samoan, our surname is French so my nationality has been a FAQ my whole life lol. When asked though, I'll always identify as Samoan. When asked if I speak Samoan, well that's a different story hah!
My parents moved to Sydney Australia where they got married before I came along, so I was born and bred in Aus. They moved us home when I was 3 months old to Avondale, West Auckland where I was raised around a lot of family. We then moved back to Sydney where I attended high school and I’ve kind of been living between Sydney and Auckland ever since. Both cities are home to me, but I attribute a lot of who I am to being Samoan and a kiwi.…more
HIBISCUS & RUTHLESS - Review
Directing a second film is like writing a second album for musicians. No one forgets the first film or first album, like no one forgets the first time they bit into a keke pua’a...
And so it is with this latest installment from director Stallone Vaiaoasa. Hibiscus and Ruthless (Suivai Pilisipi Autagavaia and Anna-Maree Thomas) deliver compelling performances as two young woman in their final year at university. Hibiscus plays the obedient daughter whose familiar life is go to uni, go to church, eat, prayer, sleep, repeat. Add in to that progression “Boys” and suddenly the whole world goes crazy coconuts for Hibiscus. With guys hitting on her from everywhere but Tinder and Craigs list, Hibiscus relies on her good palagi friend Ruth (Ruthless) with the straight hair and all the jokes to keep tanked up, lynx deoderant boys at bay.
The film itself does feel a little more slick than 3WC but none of the whizz bangs mean anything without a good script. And besides a few speed bumps, the story gets a pass mark.…more
Two Weddings, One Love
Jona and Henrietta Nabalarua knew very early on that they would spend forever together. They celebrated their love with family and friends not once, but twice, at a ceremony in Auckland and then in Suva, Fiji. Both ceremonies, vastly different in protocols, brought two beautiful cultures and families together.
Jona was considered a bachelor at 26 and his parents Diba and Roko were very excited to start planning the wedding in Suva, Fiji. For Henrietta’s parents, their engagement after three months came as a surprise, but ultimately both families were extremely happy and supportive of the couple.
Hosted by Jona’s family, the ceremony in Fiji took place over three days. For the Adams family, this would be their first ever authentic experience in Fiji, seeing first hand how a traditional Fijian ceremony is carried out. The first day saw Jona’s family bring food and gifts to his parents’ home.…more
Pacific Touch NYC
Nestled in the towering city of Manhattan lies a Polynesian paradise. Founder Nichola Weir brings the islands to New York with Pacific Touch NYC; an acclaimed day spa dedicated to holistic skin healing.
While in New York I was fortunate enough to visit Pacific Touch and receive an incredible skin treatment from Nichola who also shared her experiences and knowledge with me.
“Pacific Touch is about bringing the islands back to Manhattan. It’s about conveying everything that is comforting to me about being Polynesian into a service over here.” - Weir.
Having previously suffered from bad acne for 15 years, as well as her mum working in beauty therapy, Nichola has always been passionate about skin and healing. Her holistic approach with Pacific Touch has been a life changing experience for many of her clients.
“I have a client who was in a really bad accident and she nearly died. She had a huge amount of facial reconstruction and she came to me for a really long time and we did massage and facial work.…more
PRIDE FESTIVAL
Saturday 3rd Feb, 8pm
FAF SWAG host a Vogue Ball to kick off a new online Interactive Documentary that features stories of the collective, at the Auckland Art Gallery on Weds Feb 7th.
Celebrating our Pasifika Female Directors
Celebrating our Pasifika Female Directors on #FemaleFilmMakerFriday!
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SIMA URALE
Sima Urale has worked in the creative industry from theatre to film and television for more than 30 years, initially as a professional actor in theatre, and then in the last 25 years as a freelance filmmaker. She is a highly regarded filmmaker with extensive experience in drama and acting, writing and developing screenplays, to directing numerous films from drama to documentary, TV commercials, music videos, and corporate videos. She has also been a mentor for emerging filmmakers, and a part time Senior Lecturer at Unitec’s Film & TV School. From 2012 to 2015, she was Head Tutor at the New Zealand Film & Television School in Wellington.
Sima has been the recipient of several international awards, as artist in residence at Hawaii University, McMillian Brown Center at Canterbury University, and the COCA arts residency at Massey University. Sima is currently developing various feature length projects with producers and hopes to embark on another feature film in the near future whilst taking care of her elderly mother.…more
Parris Goebels Grammys choreography
Check out Rihanna's performance at the Grammys with DJ Khaled & Bryson Tiller for their hit "Wild Thoughts" and the dance choreography which was thanks to our girl Parris Goebel!!!
She said on Facebook "Always blessed when I get to work with Rihanna"
& she tweeted this after the performance:
One Samoan Identity to Rule Them All?
By Patrick Thomsen
Identity is of grave importance for all who are thrust into the mystifying space of diaspora existence. As a child of a very Samoan family, much like others in our community who made their way to New Zealand during the late 70s and 80s in search of economic prosperity, the question of what it means to be a ‘real’ Samoan has haunted me my entire existence.
Judging from the repetitive, voracious arguments on social media around cultural authenticity, it’s a question that haunts many of my fellow Samoans too. And finding the answer to this question has proven harder than finding a needle in a tatau themed haystack.
On Samoa’s treasured islands, passage into adulthood has been marked for centuries through the bestowing of a pe’a or malu onto an individual.…more
A Kiwi-Poly in the Big Apu
I always knew I would find myself in New York at some point in my life, and here I am amidst the hustle and bustle, soaking up everything this magnificent city has to offer.
Being from Aotearoa with Samoan blood, I find myself among the very small percentage of Pasifika people in New York. Though the Big Apple is undoubtedly one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, the island presence is somewhat scarce.
When confronted with the questions I'm so frequently asked; “Where are you from?” and “What are you?”, I’m no longer surprised at the lack of familiarity with our corner of the world. Many people are still under the impression New Zealand is a part of Australia, and the majority have no perception of the pacific islands at all, unless I use Hawai’i as a reference.
Explaining Aotearoa, the islands and my mixed ethnicity is always something I have to go into depth with, and usually people are interested enough to keep listening.…more