pride in culture Professor teams with nephew to teach Samoan language to local children BY LEIANI BROWN
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t’s Saturday afternoon. Ceiling fans gently spin above about 100 children seated crosslegged on the La’ie Elementary Cafeteria floor. All heads face a single figure sitting just above them on the faded green steps, smiling as she softly prompts them to repeat after her. “‘Savalivali’ means go for a walk,” the children repeat in sing-song chant, squirming in their lavalavas and black t-shirts that display the name of their group, “Tava’esina.” Tava’esina is a Samoan bird, explained Tofamamao “Semi” Taulogo, the group’s creator, who said he chose the name because of the accompanying Samoan proverb. “E mamae le tava’e i ona fulu. It means the tava’e bird is proud of its feathers,” said Taulogo. “As Samoans, this is how we show our pride in our culture.” The birth of Tava’esina The woman teaching is Taulogo’s aunt, Rowena Reid, assistant professor in the Center for Learning & Teaching, Distance Learning, Faculty of Sciences and Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts. She
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has taught Samoan at BYU–Hawaii for more than 20 years. “I’ve had a lot of requests from the community to teach Samoan for adults,” said Reid, who explained she could never find the time, despite a few tries here and there over the years. After attending her grandchildren’s Polynesian dance recital, Reid said her passion for perpetuating Samoan language and culture was renewed. “I thought, ‘What about Samoans? Come on.You’ve got to teach your own, your own language, your own dances.’” Reid said she knew her nephew already wanted to teach dances, so the two of them combined forces and created Tava’esina, a La‘ie-based group for children and youth ages to learn Samoan language, dance and culture. They began by creating a website, tavaesina. com, to see if there was an interest, explained Reid, who said she was floored by the number of people wanting to sign up. “We were worried because there are a lot of kids, but the kids are so busy.You know you’ve got school. Then, you’ve got games Saturday mornings, and now you’re going to ask
them to come again at 1? And I thought, ‘Well, we’ll just wait and see,’” said Reid. Taulogo, the driving force behind Tava’esina, described how the idea first came into his mind and the vision he has for its future. “It’s small right now, just one hour. But I know it will grow.” He also explained how the gospel played a considerable role in the inspiration behind Tava‘esina. Taulogo shared he wondered for years what he was supposed to do with his life, and when he started coming back to church and “striving to do the little things,” ideas formed in his head. “I see this going on for a while. I see it building people and bringing everybody together, not only in culture but through the Lord and the gospel.” “Everyone will probably see it as just a little dance group. If we do this how we’re supposed to and build it to where everyone is sharing their and talents with each other, then that will be wonderful.”
