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Indigenous 

"For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children's future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it." - Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Rich Faiva

8/8/2018

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My cousin, Rich Faiva, is an extremely talented photographer. He specializes in lifestyle and wedding photography.
​I love the way he captures both our family and our culture .
The following link showcases Rich’s trip to Samoa. I love seeing my father’s homeland through his eyes.
www.richfaivaphotography.com/blog/
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Hinemoa

7/26/2017

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"Tutanekai lived on Mokoia Island, Lake Rotorua, where of an evening he and his friend Tiki used to play – the one on a “horn”, the other on a “pipe”. The sound of this music could be heard across Lake Rotorua at Owhata and it charmed the beautiful and noble-born Hinemoa who lived there. When Tutanekai visited the mainland with his people, he met Hinemoa and they fell in love. The young man had perforce to return to his village, but the lovers arranged that every night he would play and that Hinemoa would follow the sound of his music to join him."
-Te Ara
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​"Tutanekai kept up a nightly serenade but Hinemoa's people, suspecting something was afoot, had hidden all the canoes. The maiden, however, was not to be deterred and, selecting six large, dry, empty gourds as floats, she decided to swim to the island. Guided by the strains of her loved one's music, Hinemoa safely reached the other shore and landed near a hot spring, Waikimihia, in which she warmed and refreshed herself."
-Te Ara 
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Pokarekare Ana

Maori
Pōkarekare ana, ngā wai o Rotorua.
Whiti atu koe hine, marino ana e.


E hine e, hoki mai ra
Ka mate ahau i te aroha e.

Tuhituhi taku reta, tuku atu taku rīngi
Kia kite tō iwi, raru raru ana e.

E hine e, hoki mai ra
Ka mate ahau i te aroha e.

E kore te aroha, e maroke i te rā
Mākūkū tonu i aku roimata e.

E hine e, hoki mai ra
Ka mate ahau i te aroha e.

Whati whati taku pene, kua pau aku pepa
Ko taku aroha, mau tonu ana e.

E hine e, hoki mai ra
Ka mate ahau i te aroha e.
English
The waves are breaking, against the shores of Rotorua.
My heart is aching, for your return my love.


Oh my beloved girl, come back to me
I could die of love for you.

I have written you a letter, and enclosed with it my ring,
So your people could see it how much I'm troubled for you.

Oh my beloved girl, come back to me
I could die of love for you.

The sun's hot sheen, won't scorch my love,
Being kept evergreen, by the falling of my tears.

Oh my beloved girl, Come back to me
I could die of love for you.

My poor pen is broken, my paper is spent,
But my love for you endures, and remains forever more.

Oh my beloved girl, come back to me
I could die of love for you.
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Paikea

6/14/2017

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There once lived in Hawaiki a chief called Uenuku, who had seventy-one sons. Seventy of these sons were chiefs, for their mothers were of noble birth. But Uenuku had one wife who was a slave, and because of this, her son Ruatapu was of no importance.

One day Uenuku decided to build a great canoe. A tall tree was felled, and for a long time his men worked at hollowing and smoothing and carving it. When it was finished it was painted red and hung with strings of feathers.

Then Uenuku brought together all his sons, so that their hair might be combed and oiled and tied into top-knots. This was so that they would look well when they sailed for the first time in the great canoe. Uenuku himself combed and oiled and tied their hair, for this was tapu, a sacred thing.

Ruatapu became offended when his father Uenuku elevated his older half-brother

Kahutia-te-rangi (later known as Paikea) ahead of him. When Ruatapu was about to use a comb belonging to Kahutia-te-rangi, Uenuku rebuked him, pointing out that Kahutia-te-rangi was of high rank while Ruatapu was of low birth (because his mother was a slave wife).

Then Ruatapu was very ashamed, and ran away and planned to revenge himself. He ate no food that night, but went down to the canoe and cut a hole in its bottom. Then he filled the hole in again with chips of wood.

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In the morning all the noble sons of Uenuku launched the canoe for the first time, and Ruatapu went with them. The canoe was a beautiful sight, with its feathers and tall carvings, and it went very fast over the waves. They paddled a long way out to sea, and Ruatapu kept his heel over the hole so it would not be seen. When they were out of sight of land, Ruatapu pushed away the chips from the hole and water rushed into the canoe.

‘Where is the bailer?’ his brothers shouted.

‘Quickly, bail out the water, or we are lost!’

But Ruatapu had hidden the bailer, and the canoe filled with water and sank. Then Ruatapu had his revenge, for all his noble brothers were drowned, excepting one. Ruatapu swam after his last brother, Kahutia-te-rangi,  but he could not catch him.


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Kahutia-te-rangi said, “I will not drown. I am descended from Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and he will help me.”

Tangaroa heard his descendant, and sent a paikea (whale) to take him to land.
Kahutia-te-rangi was the sole survivor of his brother's evildoings and assumed the name Paikea as a memorial of the assistance he received from the whales.​

Then Ruatapu recited a magic incantation, and sent five great waves rolling across the ocean after Paikea. But Paikea was too far away, and he came to land just before the waves reached him. The waves hit the shore and bounced off again, and went back across the ocean. They rushed over Ruatapu, who was still in the sea, and Ruatapu was drowned through his own magic.
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But Paikea was safe. It was the East Coast of the North Island to which the whale had brought him, and his children's children live there still. The whale became an island, and you can see it there today.
-Te Aho Hou
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Alternate Version

The Tribes of Ngati Porou and
Ngai Tahu are his descendants.
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Island Babies.

3/15/2017

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Thinking back to our trip to Rarotonga, Cook Islands, with my brother Hagoth and his family last year.

The people of the Cook Islands are Maori but with a more tropical infusion. In fact while we were there we saw the place where several of the Great Maori Canoes left and made the voyage to New Zealand. They felt like a Maori - Samoan mix just like me.

​The island itself was beautiful. Clear water, fresh coconuts, and tropical beauty all around.

But the best part was seeing these three babies be right at home on the island. Cheeehooo!
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The Man From Fasito'outa...

2/22/2017

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"When you realize what people call paradise...you call home."
​-Hagoth Aiono

My father, Ominae Luluali'i Aiono, was born in Fasito'outa, a village on the northwest coast of the island of Upolu in Samoa and was one of the village chief's (Mata'i) fourteen children. 2010 was the last time I visited my family's village a few months before his death.

​Life in the village is simple yet full of life and surrounded by beauty. In every village there seems to be an area where the boys play rugby, people get up early to take the buses to town for work, and Sunday mornings are filled with the smell of umus (underground ovens) filled with food for after church. But Fasito'outa is special to me because it is the village of MY aiga (family). It's where my father stared out across the ocean and dreamed of a life bigger than this tiny village, but returned at the end of life to the place he always considered home. 

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Aiono Family Home
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The front yard
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Village Fale
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Soldiers Rd.

2/15/2017

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“Having had the opportunity to travel abroad with our original concept, we have definitely experienced first hand the uniqueness and beauty of our Maori culture on the world stage. We enjoy having a business that promotes and celebrates our culture.”
-Soldier Rd Portraits
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In 2014, my husband Greg, discovered this company called
Soldiers Rd Portraits on Instagram. He liked, how they took culturally inspired vintage looking portraits of different Maori people, but what really caught our eye was how they infused Maori culture and blended it other cultures to show a mixed-identity modern portrayal of what it means to be Maori today. Being Half-Maori and Half-Samoan, this blended cultural portrait that would pay homage to my Maori roots in a vintage portrait really appealed to me and when Greg discovered that Soldier Rd would be in L.A. over the Thanksgiving holiday he quickly went to work to contact them. 
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We had the pleasure of hosting them in our home and making some eternal friendships. We invited as much of our family as could come for Thanksgiving and in a very appropriate way reconnected with our indigenous roots and ancestors on that special day. 

Since then, Taaniko and Vienna Nordstrom have continued to grow Soldiers Rd and do amazing things to promote Maori culture both in New Zealand and internationally. We love them and champion the work they do and will always feel a connection to them. The art they produce appeals to the eye, but more importantly connects to the soul.  
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“The portraits we take are a beautiful and positive portrayal of people, specifically Maori, and we’ve seen, heard and felt people’s reactions. They feel a sense of pride in themselves and in some ways, they feel closer to their tupuna.”
-Soldier Rd Portraits 

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"Niu Born"

2/1/2017

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This sculpture of a baby in a coconut shell is titled "Niu Born". The word "Niu" is a Polynesian word for coconut. A play on words for New Born. Coconuts float in water and travel thousands of miles. When they land on ground, they take root and flourish across the land. This sculpture represents how Polynesians have flourished throughout the world bringing their deeply rooted traditions, family values, and culture.
-Lilo Tauvao (Artist)
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My husband and I saw this sculpture years ago, before we were married, attending an event promoting Polynesian Artists at Cal State Long Beach. It was a night filled with film, music, poetry, spoken word, and various art mediums, but this sculpture was so striking that it made a powerful impact on both Greg and I.  Last year, around my son's first birthday, the artist (Lilo Tauvao) made the sculpture available for purchase and after reading his beautiful description the piece spoke to me so much that  I knew we needed this piece in our home. 

It makes me think of my father, leaving his small island home in Samoa, with a dream to one day be able to build a home for his parents. His dream took him first to New Zealand where he met a beautiful Maori Maiden, and sprouted roots by started his own family. New Zealand afforded him the opportunity to accomplish his dream and build his parents a home back in his village of Fasito'outa, Upolu, Samoa.

But my father continued to dream and like the coconut travelled thousands of miles to The United States, which he called "The Land of Milk and Honey" to afford his children greater opportunities. I'm so grateful for my immigrant parents for having the courage to sprout new roots in a country far from their island homes while having the strength to stay rooted in their traditions, family values, and culture.

I can see this piece becoming an heirloom to our children. A piece that sparks conversation and brings to our remembrance that no matter how far we travel from the islands,
the islands will always be a part of us. 
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    ​Ana

    "Behind every successful woman is a tribe of other successful women, who have her back."

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