Hello from Samoa!

    PhD Candidate Tanya Volentras arrived into Samoa for fieldwork and sent us her reflections. Her supervisors are Professor Rosita Henry and Associate Professor Simon Foale.

    Arriving in the early morning and driving through the slowly wakening villages towards Apia, the capital of Samoa, chicken and pigs roam freely, fishermen paddle canoes, old ladies and men tidy up leaves that have fallen overnight, and school kids await colourful buses in their formal lavalavas (sarongs) and school tunics. We pass countless churches, all shapes and designs, a clear indication of the Christianisation and early missionisation of Samoa, with Samoa’s motto being ‘In God We Trust’.

    I am here to try to determine how everyday Samoans are responding to the challenges of climate change, and whether, like the I-Kiribati, as written about by Kempf (2011), they are using music and performance as a means of expression, negotiation and sharing of concerns about climatic events. Yet, climate change is just one aspect that is concerning about Samoa.

    There is a lot of rubbish, not around the neatly tended houses in the villages, but everywhere else, and numerous throwaway shops selling cheap plastic knickknacks and toys. There are a lot of cars in Apia, more than when I lived here as a child, and a McDonalds with a queue of cars snaking onto the street.

    I want to buy food, and the supermarket items are expensive, giant triffid-like chicken thighs and legs (twice the size of those found in Australia) are imported from the US, cereals and cans of mackerel from NZ and Australia. Only onions, garlic, ginger and carrots are affordable in the supermarkets, with lettuce and broccoli too overpriced to bear buying, though the local market has vendors selling cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, beans and bok choy, as well as sweet finger bananas, pawpaw and a crunchy tart fruit called vi.

    On our trip to Manono, a small island halfway between the two larger islands of Upolu and Savai’i, we catch a rickety boat squashed in between about 10 chiefs of my extended family, and climb the incline where our family houses are located.

    The old matriarch, Lesa, 90 years old, hugs and kisses me, remembering me as a child, her blue-cataract eyes gleaming, as she shows us in to her fale/house. It’s breezy here, a lovely respite from the humidity and heat and I adore the way she has decorated her ceiling with multiple colourful tropical print cloths. In her fale, there’s only a bed-frame with a mat on it, 3 wooden chests which likely contain some of her personal items - perhaps some fine mats, some precious photos - and a small table with a tumble of items on it, mosquito coils, a plastic bag, a newspaper. I notice a neat bundle of pandanus, wound and ready for drying in preparation for weaving, and I say to Lesa, ‘’I would really like to come back and stay for a while. I’ll help out, maybe with the weeding, or gardening, the harvesting and preparation of cocoa, taro or breadfruit, and also your weaving’’. Her delight and surprise is plain to see, ‘’You want to learn faa’Samoa (way of being Samoan)? ‘’Yes’’, I say, ‘’yes please’’.

    Back to List


    More News


    Kampus Merdeka - Independent Campus

    Kampus Merdeka - Independent Campus

    James Cook University-The Cairns Institute and the State University of Malang during the past year, have conducted research on Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (Independent Campus Freedom to Learn). Pre...

    Read More

    OPEN NOW: $5,000 Scholarship Opportunities available to build regional and community resilience

    OPEN NOW: $5,000 Scholarship Opportunities available to build regional and community resilience

    Are you passionate about agriculture and want to help your community be resilient to our ever-changing climate? The TNQ Drought Hub is offering scholarship opportunities, up to the value of $5000, to ...

    Read More

    Reconciliation through Research

    Reconciliation through Research

    The TNQ Drought Hub was delighted to partner with Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre, the Australian Tropical Herbarium and the CSIRO to hold an event celebrating Reconciliation through Research. ...

    Read More

    JCU receives a share in over $350K grant funding

    JCU receives a share in over $350K grant funding

    James Cook University (JCU) is one of four recipients to have received a share in $350,000 in funding, thanks to the TNQ Drought Hub’s Tropical North Queensland Drought Resilience Grant Scheme.&...

    Read More

    Congratulations to final cohort of TNQ Drought Hub Hone and Harvest teams

    Congratulations to final cohort of TNQ Drought Hub Hone and Harvest teams

    Congratulations to the final cohort of Hone and Harvest teams who have graduated from the TNQ Drought Hub’s business accelerator program in partnership with Farmers2Founders. Over the last 12 mo...

    Read More

    Do colours affect our emotions?

    Do colours affect our emotions?

    Associate Professor Heather Winskel writes from Singapore. "My very considerate dentist has purposefully painted his surgery in a calming light blue. I haven’t had the heart to tell him that it ...

    Read More

    TNQ Drought Hub unveils new artwork collaboration with local Indigenous artist

    TNQ Drought Hub unveils new artwork collaboration with local Indigenous artist

    The TNQ Drought Hub has unveiled a new artwork as part of their way to acknowledge and pay respects to Indigenous knowledge, created in collaboration with Cairns artist and cultural practitioner, Bern...

    Read More

    Australian American Leadership Dialogue delegation to JCU

    Australian American Leadership Dialogue delegation to JCU

    The Development in the Tropics team hosted a delegation of forty leaders from across Australia and the United States on Sunday 6 August as part of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue (AALD) 20...

    Read More

    Top

    © 2023 The Cairns Institute | Site Map | Site by OracleStudio | Design by LeoSchoepflin