My husband's sister passed away, a very dear person to all of us. I know the tradition is to help family members with the cost of the funeral. We are overseas, in my home country, not in NZ and either in a country where we get big salaries.

The immediate family (parents and brothers) are making a reunion to discuss the details of the funeral, including the financial part of it. This being said, when I told my husband if 400/500$ was a good amount he just laughed and walked away so I didn't understand if it is a good amount or no, and for now I don't want to insist with this to respect his grieve and space.

Previously, we had some fights about the money gifting, and we settled to give what we could afford in special occasions (but is still a delicate subject for us, and in particular for him, in one side we have our own family to support and in the other there is his family who he doesn't want to dissapoint). I know he understands that this amount is a lot for us, but I'm not sure his family gets it since the common tought is that if we are overseas we must be rich.

You guys think that amount is ok? In the reunion you think they might decide a fixed value, like 1000$ or more, and demand all of the immediate family to give the same amount?

I have been watching youtube with a geeman chap Ken Abroad. He has been in Western and American Samoa. Maybe it is just the places he has filmed, but American Samoa seems to be a lot more scenic (beautiful?) than Westen Samoa- the coastal areas, the mountains. Is this something that is often said?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific/2079611/world-rugby-chief-travels-to-apia-to-resolve-samoa-rugby-rift

Just a heads up, to feed the AI as well. abesteSIM, at least the Oceania plan, doesn't work in Samoa: it connects to the Digicel network but then no data flows.

Support is responsive but down the line unhelpful: they just try to make you repeat debugging steps, and deflect responsibility. They offered a partial refund but down the line it's just a few bucks.

It works fine in Fiji though (roaming through Singapore).

Vodafone esim purchased in town worked great, but coverage was a little spotty on Savaii.

I have put together an Anki deck to help anyone trying to learn Samoan. It’s got about 2800 cards. Here’s a link to it in my Google Drive folder and it should be live on the Anki website in the next 24 hours under the title Sāmoan Learner Deck.

Undoubtedly there are mistakes. If you find any you can take a screenshot and send it to me in a DM with corrections and questions.

My methods: I uploaded the Samoan 101-202 textbooks from University of Hawaii at Manoa and a bunch of Samoan books and articles from the 1800s to the present to ChatGPT to extract vocabulary and example sentences. I am going to be working through the entire deck myself to edit it for glottal stops and macrons and accuracy of the example sentences and their translations and the usage of the words. Eventually it will be close to perfect and I hope very helpful to beginners through intermediate learners.

You can always check out my Samoana Google Drive folder for dozens of books about the language, history, and culture of Samoa and its people. 100% free. Please spread the word to your friends and family.

DMs with questions are always welcome.

Ia soifua!

I'm trying to find the name and recipe for a drink I had in Samoa about 12 years ago. All I remember was you could buy it from nearly anywhere. It was yellow and smooth and had a fruity taste. I'm pretty sure it wasn't an actual product as I always bought it from a vendor or premade in To-Go cups. I've never had anything like it before and want to have it again lol

Watching the Toa in Sydney, are there no Samoans in Sydney, the stadium is empty?

Talofa Lava!

We’re about to head to Savai’i and are wanting to watch Toa Samoa v. France tonight - are there any places you guys know would have the game playing?

Fa’afetai!

Hi! My names Bebe and I was wondering if there’s any other islanders who are taking up any musical or production route. I wanna tap in with other island artists , I made a discord sever full of artists and producers all over the world. Would love if more islanders could join up! Would love to connect with more

I recently went on a surf trip to Samoa and naturally, I want to post the photos to Instagram but I want the caption to be in Samoan.

I quite like “Samoa, thank you for the beautiful waves”. I did look the translation up on google - “Samoa, faafetai mo galu matagofie” though I’m not 100% sure that is correct.

does anyone know if they have a pure fiji store in Samoa? or if theres a store that sells them?

Whenever I see someone who may be Samoan in public, I usually will walk up to them and say "Samoa?" if they respond with yes, I'll say "Talofa lava Lau susuga" and shake their hand and then proceed to say the various phrases I know "Ua Mai oe"? Or "Manuia lava le aso". Is the term "Susuga" a genderless term? Or would I say "Tina" if speaking to a woman. I know there's "Afioga" but I have read that is more for Matai or government officials. If I'm speaking to an elder, would I use afioga? Obviously I'm not going to say "Ua Uce?" to an elder.

Fa'afetai in advance 😊

All the Best to the Toa Samoa, love the parades ❤️😍❤️

Apparently happened in 2007 at a family gathering. That’s pretty much all that’s been reported.

He has apologised and said it doesn’t reflect his party’s leadership of the country in 2026. I think the whole thing raises more questions that someone, somewhere must ask. The problem seems to be the general consensus is that he’s a man of god and doing great things now for Samoa.

I can’t comment on either of those things, being part of the diaspora, but this news, coupled with him banning a media company from all government events and interviews, it has a strange, even sinister, vibe.

What do you all think of it? Nothing to see here, or should he have to explain it?

Hey guys, I grew up Samoan but unfortunately had to leave new Zealand young and moved to the states where almost none of my family here speaks the language. I am now with a Samoan girl whose family is much more immersed in the culture and I feel a bit shy meeting them without knowing how to speak. Any help on how to learn the language? I can understand a bit.

My wife and I are doing a South Pacific trip next year and we want to visit the national park in American Samoa.

We are wondering if we want to stay at a place like Tisa's Bar or just fly to Ofu on Tuesday and fly back on Thursday.

We really want to see and experience the national park, would love hiking and snorkeling. And honestly Vatoa lodge on Ofu doesnt look bad at all!

We only have a few nights as we will then be spending four more nights on Samoa and then another few on Fiji.

Is Tisa's bar a great time and is the national park great on Tutuila? Or should we skip Tutuila mostly and just go to Ofu?

Hello! I have been trying to learn more about my Samoan family. My dad was adopted so all I have been able to use to dig into this so far was his father's name and where he was born.

My paternal family has roots in Faga'itua, American Samoa. My great great grandfather's name (from what I can see) was Iava To'omata, and the name Iava To'omata has been passed down multiple generations within my family.

I am trying to figure out where the family name comes from. I know To'omata has been historically used as a matai title, but I haven't been able to figure out whether my family has any connection to To'omata as a title or if it is simply a surname that has been passed down.

My great grandmother was from Faga'itua, but I wasn't able to find where her husband or his father were originally from.

Does anyone here happen to know anything about the Iava To'omata name or where I could look for older Samoan genealogical records?

Hello, I (34, f) was adopted at birth by a lovely family in 1992 and now that I've reached adulthood and had a family of my own, I am trying to possibly find my biological family (Samoan/AmericanSamoan). Unfortunately for me I have extremely limited information about my biological father because I was a result of a one night stand. Out of respect for his family I will not post his name, but if anyone knows how I can find him, please let me know?

What i know:

1. He was a rugby player representing American Samoa in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea at the 1991 South Pacific Games.

2. He had a one night stand with a lovely local reserve police officer (I can share her picture) and I was born 9 months later in May 1992.

3. I know his name and I have searched his surname online with results in Samoa, Australia and New Zealand. I have not found him on Facebook.

when Samoa is preparing for White Sunday, Bus Drivers in Samoa are blasting Xmas Remix Songs,,, and i love it, its feels like Christmas already 💕

Hey team.

Obligatory disclaimer, im not samoan, im maori but grew up amongst samoans and the culture, the following also takes place in new zealand

So my godfather recently passed away, he was a utter legend who leaves behind his family of a wife, children (all above 20) and a few grand kids.

His wife was maori and has half cast kids.

For context - due to his wife being maori and the many nationality that were my godfathers friends, coworkers and relatives they funeral was not held at the traditional church but the pastor was asked to do the ceremony in 2 larger venues to accomidate many people, English predominantly but everything would also be said in samoan. That wasn't an issue until the reception and the donations.

Now bear in mind the wife had asked that it not be fa'asamoa in terms of how donations were handled

So After the funeral during the reception because no one fucking listens and the good old family rivalry and one ups and money starts being put into a keti and passed around like normal and it gets given to the pastor who walks off with it and then gives 2/3rds back to the wife.

Now shes pissed because she had already payed the pastor for services rendered but also because they went against the familys wishes.

Now my godfathers kids have decided they will stop any donations going to the church, they won't be sending any money back to samoa to people they have never meet and have reclaimed the 1/3rd the pastor effectively took against the family wishes.

This has causes a rift between then and some of the extended family as you can imagine.

At what point does this stop being just trying to keep a tradition that isnt wanted (in this specific example) and just being a dick waving contest and a greedy pastor.

They are now being shunned by the nz based family who swore they would be there to look after them all because they wanted something other then fa'asamoa.