Savaiʻi
Savaii is the largest and highest island both in Samoa and in the Samoan Islands chain. The island is also the sixth largest in Polynesia, behind the three main islands of New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands of Hawaii and Maui. While it is larger than the second main island, Upolu, it is significantly less populated.
Samoans sometimes refer to the island of Savaii as Salafai: This is its classical Samoan name, and is used in formal oratory and prose. The island is home to 43,958 people, and they make up 24% of the population of Samoa.
The island's only township and ferry terminal is called Salelologa. It is the main point of entry to the island, and is situated at the east end of Savaii. A tar sealed road serves as the single main highway, connecting most of the villages. Local bus routes also operate, reaching most settlements.
Savaii is made up of six itūmālō. Each district is made up of villages that have strong traditional ties with each other — of kinship, history, and land — and that use similar matai. Savaii's relatively limited ecotourism operations are organized mostly at the village level. The Mau, Samoa's non-violent movement for political independence during colonialism in the early 1900s, had its beginnings on Savaii, with the Mau a Pule movement.
The island is the largest shield volcano in the South Pacific. Its most recent eruptions were in the early 1900s. Its central region comprises the Central Savaii Rainforest, extending over which is the largest contiguous rainforest in Polynesia. It is dotted with more than 100 volcanic craters and contains most of Samoa's native species of flora and fauna, making it one of the world's most globally significant conservation areas.
Society and culture
, the unique traditional culture and way of life in Samoan society, remains strong in Savaiʻi, where there are fewer signs of modern life and less development than on the island of Upolu, where the capital, Apia, is located.Samoan society is communal and based on extended family relationships and socio-cultural obligations, so that kinship and genealogies are important. These faʻa Sāmoa values are also associated with concepts of love, service to family and community, respect and discipline. Most families are made up of a number of different households situated close to each other.
Like the rest of Samoa, Savaiʻi is made up of villages with most of the land collectively owned by families or ʻaiga. Most people on Savaiʻi, 93% of the island population, live on customary land. The heads of the family are called matai, the holders of family names and titles. An extended family can have a number of chiefs with different chief titles. Men and women in Samoa have equal rights to chief titles which are bestowed by consensus of the extended family. Traditionally, male and female roles are defined by labours and tasks, chiefly status and age. Women play an important role contributing to family decisions as well as village governance. Elders are revered and respected. Social relationships are dictated by cultural etiquettes of politeness and common greetings.
The Samoan language has a 'polite' and formal variant used in Samoan oratory and ceremony as well as in communication with elders, guests, people of rank and strangers. In all villages, the majority of people are largely sustained by plantation work and fishing with financial assistance from relatives working in Apia or overseas.
Most people live in coastal villages although there are some settlements inland such as the villages of Aopo, Patamea and Sili.
Behind the villages are cultivated plantations with crops of taro, cocoa koko, coconuts popo, yams palai, ava, fruit and vegetables as well other native plants such as pandanus for weaving ʻie tōga fine mats and bark for tapa cloth.
There is a church in every village, mostly Christian denominations. Sunday is sacred and a day of rest as 98% of Samoans identify themselves as religious. White Sunday is one of the most important days of the year in Samoa when children are treated with special attention by their families and community.
History
World War II
During World War II, Savaii came under the Allies 'Samoa Defense Group' which included Upolu, Tutuila and Wallis Island and later extended in 1944 to cover bases in other islands such as Bora Bora and the Cook Islands.A military governor of the Samoa Defense Group was Brigadier General Henry L. Larsen who had secret orders mandating a defensive position of the islands from east to west. The code name for the entire group of islands was "Straw" and the code name for Savaii was "Strawman". The code for Upolu was "Strawhat", Tutuila "Strawstack" while Wallis Island was "Strawboard". A small base was set up on the central north coast village of Fagamalo, which had a wharf and anchorage. Fagamalo was the main village for the colonial administration at the time on Savaii, situated where the small post office is today.
In its present unprotected state, Western Samoa is a hazard of first magnitude for the defense of American Samoa. The conclusion is inescapable that if we don't occupy it the Japanese will and there may not be a great deal of time left.
—8 February 1943 Report on Western Samoa defence by 2nd Marine Brigade's intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel William L. Bales.
On 18 May 1942 the 3rd Marine Brigade with 4,853 officers and men were on Upolu and Savaii under the command of Brigadier General Charles D. Barrett.
1839 Wilkes Expedition
In October 1839, Savaii and the Samoa Islands were surveyed by the famous United States Exploring Expedition led by Charles Wilkes. The survey of Savaii was performed by Lieutenant-Commandant Ringgold aboard the U.S. Brig Porpoise. Wilkes and other ships in the expedition were surveying Upolu and Tutuila at the same time. The Porpoise first touched down at the village of Sapapalii. Some of the team, Dr Pickering and Lieutenant Maury were dropped off while the brig surveyed the island's coastline and tides. Dr Pickering and the lieutenant were hosted by the resident missionary at Sapapalii, the Reverend Mr. Hardie. The Porpoise examined the bay of Palauli where there was a missionary station under the supervision of a Mr M'Donald. Wilkes' report also described Saleaula village, Asau at the west end of the island and 'the beautiful village of Falealupo' which was under the charge of a Tongan missionary. At the 'north point' of the island, the brig found 'good anchorage' in the bay of Matautu. The brig was anchored and the harbour surveyed. Wilkes' wrote that this was the harbour on the island where a vessel could anchor in safety. Here, in Matautu, the explorers noticed a difference with other parts of Savaii.
A great difference in form, physiognomy and manners...was observed here, as well as a change in the character of many articles of manufacture. The warclubs and spears were of uncommon form, and neatly made.
On 24 October, Wilkes writes, that the Porpoise arrived back at Sapapalii village, having been gone nine days. The team met paramount chief Malietoa and his son at the village. With local guides Dr Pickering had travelled some way into the interior of the island, reaching one side of a volcanic crater about one thousand feet above the sea and some inland.
One 10 November 1839, the Wilkes Expedition weighed anchor at Apia and sailed westward, and on 11 November, had lost sight of Savaii.
Notable places and people
- Archaeology in Samoa has uncovered prehistoric settlements inland in many parts of the island including sites at Sapapalii village and Vailoa in Palauli district.
- The exiled orator Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe, leader of the Mau a Pule, a resistance group against colonial rule in the early 1900s, was from the traditional sub-district of Safotulafai.
- The missionary John Williams arrived in the village of Sapapalii in 1830. Sapapalii was also a base for the Malietoa title on Savaii. A plaque by the main road in the village commemorates Williams' landing.
- In pre-history, the village of Safotu was a settlement for Tongans.
- Olaf Frederick Nelson, another exiled leader of the Mau movement in the 1920s, was born in Safune.
- The Pulemelei Mound in Palauli is the largest and most ancient structure in Polynesia.
- Pio Taofinuu, the first Polynesian cardinal and bishop, was from the village of Falealupo, Savaii.
- Reverend George Pratt, a missionary of the London Missionary Society during the 1800s, lived in Matautu on the north coast. Pratt authored the first Samoan English language dictionary A Grammar and Dictionary of the Samoan Language, with English and Samoan Vocabulary, first printed in 1862. Pratt's valuable dictionary records many old words of special interest–specialist terminology, archaic words and names in Samoan tradition. It contains sections on Samoan poetry and proverbs, and an extensive grammatical sketch.
- Activist Leilua Lino is from Asau on the island. In 2019 she was presented with a Commonwealth Innovation for Sustainable Development Award by Prince Harry.
Politics
Alongside Samoa's national and modern political structure is traditional authority vested in family chiefs. The term Pule is applied to traditional authority in Savaii.
The word Pule refers to appointments or authorities conferred on certain clans or individuals, sometime in the political history of Samoa. This traditional Pule authority was centred in certain villages around Savaii. In the early 20th century, these Pule areas on Savaii island were Safotulafai, Saleaula, Safotu, Asau, Satupaitea and Palauli. Safotu, Asau, Satupaitea and Vailoa gained 'Pule' status at different times in the 19th Century, and together with the two older Pule districts, Safotulafai and Saleaula, became the six Pule centres on Savaii.
In 1908, the 'Mau a Pule' resistance movement to colonial rule, which grew to become the national Mau movement, began on Savaii and represented traditional authority against the German administration of Samoa. The equivalent term 'Tumua' is associated with traditional authority on Upolu island.
At the local level throughout Samoa, traditional authority is vested in a chiefs' council in each village. The fono o matai carry out 'village law' and socio-political governance based on their traditional authority and faa Samoa. The authority of the matai is balanced against central government, the Malo. Most of the matai are males, however, the women in each village also have a voice in domestic affairs through the women's committees.
The main government administration offices of the Malo on Savaii are situated in the village of Tuasivi, 10 minutes north of the ferry terminal and market at Salelologa. There's a district hospital, police station, post office and court houses in Tuasivi.
Vaai Kolone, a matai and businessman from Vaisala, at the west end of the island, became the Prime Minister of Samoa twice in the 1980s.
Samoa has 11 political districts and 6 are in Savaii; Faasaleleaga, Gagaemauga, Gagaifomauga, Palauli, Satupaitea and Vaisigano.