Collaborators for Change: Community-Village Leaders

Abstract

Through the process of fa’afaletui, this chapter brings together knowledges constructed through Samoa’s collective houses of wisdom with cultural collaborators for changing the cultural landscape of psychology. What emanates is a cultural tapestry of Pacific-Indigenous epistemology from Samoa which is instrumental in sha** a pathway for Pacific-Indigenous psychology. Communal fa’afaletui with dynamic duo – Mrs. Roina Vavatau, Former CEO of Samoa Umbrella of Non-Government Organisations (SUNGO), and husband Rev. Vavatau Taufao, Education Director and currently General Secretary (Ekalesia Fa’alapotopotoga Kerisiano Samoa (EFKS) Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (CCCS), the largest church in Samoa) – give voice to the cultural fabric of Fa’aSamoa, and the everyday enactment within the lands of Samoa’s villages and wider communal nation. As cultural collaborators for change they are both contributors of knowledge and fellow analysts partnering in the ‘theorising’ of a Samoan psychology. This chapter presents three core threads in the weaving of Samoa’s tapestry for Pacific-Indigenous psychology. These are defined as the essence of Samoa’s tapu (sacred generational relations), tū ma aga (nature of Fa’aSamoa) and Family-village collectivity.