According to a legend in Samoan mythology Tilafaiga was one of the twin sisters who brought the art of tatau (Samoan tattoo) to Samoa from Fiji. Tilafaiga's twin sister's name is Taema.
Tilafaiga and Taema can also be referred to as the Matriarchs of the Samoan tatau. [1]
Tilafaiga is the mother of Nafanua, the famous Samoan Warrior Princess, whose father was Saveasi'uleo the Ali'i of the spirit underworld Pulotu.
Samoan culture tells stories of many different deities. There were deities of the forest, the seas, rain, harvest, villages, and war. There were two types of deities, atua, who had non-human origins, and aitu, who were of human origin.
Tongan narrative, Tongan mythology, or ancient Tongan religion, sometimes referred to as tala-ē-fonua in Tongan, is the collation of various myths, legends, stories, traditions, characters, creatures, spirits, and gods of the Polynesian islands that now make up the island nation of Tonga.
The Human Rights Protection Party is a Samoan political party. It was founded in 1979 and dominated Samoan party politics for decades thereafter, leading every government until their defeat in 2021. Former Prime Minister Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi has led the party since 1998.
Falealupo is a village in Samoa situated at the west end of Savai'i island 20 miles (32 km) from the International Date Line used until 29 December 2011. The village has two main settlements, Falealupo-Uta, situated inland by the main island highway and Falealupo-Tai, situated by the sea. The road to the coastal settlement is about 9 km, most of it unsealed, from the main highway. The village's population is 545.
Samoans or Samoan people are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the Samoan language. The group's home islands are politically and geographically divided between the Independent State of Samoa and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States of America. Though divided by national border, the culture and language are the same.
Tatau is a town, and the capital of the Tatau District in Bintulu Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The district's reported total population for Tatau was 30,383. Tatau became a district in 1987. Before that it was a Sub District under Bintulu District. The main spoken languages are Iban, Kenyah, Beketan and Punan.
Nafanua was a historical aliʻi (chief/queen) and toa (warrior) of Samoa from the Sā Tonumaipeʻa clan, who took the four pāpā (district) titles, the leading aliʻi titles of Samoa. After her death she became a goddess in Polynesian religion.
Poloa is a village in American Samoa. It is located at the west side of Tutuila in the Alataua District. The village has 193 residents in 2010. The main denominations in the area are Methodist and Christian. Poloa has one elementary school. It is located in Lealataua County.
Mark Adams is one of New Zealand's most distinguished photographers.
Samoan literature can be divided into oral and written literatures, in the Samoan language and in English or English translation, and is from the Samoa Islands of independent Samoa and American Samoa, and Samoan writers in diaspora. Samoan as a written language emerged after 1830 when Tahitian and English missionaries from the London Missionary Society, working with Samoan chiefly orators, developed a Latin script–based Samoan written language. Before this, there were logologo and tatau but no phonetic written form.
The Samoan Order of Merit is an order recognizing distinguished service in science, art, literature, or religion. Per the Honours and Awards Act 1999, admission into the organization is granted by the O le Ao o le Malo, presently Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi II, and is limited to 15 living individuals from Samoa, plus an unspecified number of foreigners. All members receive the ability to use the post-nominal letters OM and a medallion to wear, and in the Samoan order of precedence fall between Companions and Officers of the Order of Samoa.
Saveasiʻuleo is the God of Pulotu the underworld of spirits or Hades in Samoan mythology.
The Peʻa is the popular name of the traditional male tatau (tattoo) of Samoa, also known as the malofie. It is a common mistake for people to refer to the pe'a as sogaimiti, because sogaimiti refers to the man with the pe'a and not the pe'a itself. It covers the body from the middle of the back to the knees, and consists of heavy black lines, arrows, and dots.
Taema is the name of a female figure referred to in different legends in Samoan mythology.
Su'a Sulu'ape Paulo II was a tufuga ta tatau born in Matafa'a near Lefaga, Samoa but based in New Zealand since the 1970s. He was born into one of the leading families of tattooists tufuga ta tatau in Samoa. The tattooists in these families, are loosely organized in a guild like system of master and apprentices. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries tufuga ta tatau were known internationally for their culturally distinctive and highly skilled work. The word tattoo is believed to have originated from the word tatau. In Samoan mythology the origin of the tatau is told in a legend about two sisters, Tilafaiga and Taema who brought the tools and knowledge of tattooing to Samoa. The Samoan male tattoo (tatau) is the pe'a. The female tatau is the malu.
Tatau is a town, and the capital of the Tatau District in Bintulu Division, Sarawak, east Malaysia.
Thomas Andrew was a New Zealand photographer who lived in Samoa from 1891 until his death in 1939.
Weejasperaspis is an extinct acanthothoracid placoderm found in the Taemas-Weejasper Reef, of the Early Devonian-aged Buchan Group in eastern Victoria, Australia and the type species is W. gavini. Weejasperaspis differs from other acanthothoracids in that the median dorsal crest is short, and triangular-shaped. Its sister genus, Murrindalaspis, differs from it by having large, blade-like median dorsal crests that are recurved. Like Murrindalaspis, it is only known from a dorsal plate and ossified eyeballs.
Saʻilele is a village on the north shore in the Eastern District of Tutuila Island in American Samoa. It is reached from a cross-island road which leads north from the village of Fagaʻitua. On a track east of the village is a burial ground where some aliʻi were buried.
Nafanua II (04) was a Guardian-class patrol boat built in Australia for Samoa. It replaced the original Nafanua, supplied to Samoa three decades earlier. Her crew were drawn from the Samoan Police Force.