It seems an age now, but once I lived at Mulinu’ū, the version that no longer exists. My house was on the eastern side, looking into Āpia harbour. Sāmoa’s Fale Fono, the old and then new one, were across the road, as were a line of traditional fale, lived in by people who created a small community on the peninsula. Annual independence celebrations saw tens of thousands of people outside the backdoor. If that coincided with mango season, our tree stood no chance.
Right next door to my house, was the main hearing area for the Land and Titles Court. It was an open sided, non-air conditioned hall; with the steady breeze it was a comfortable place to gather.
In my early time in Sāmoa the big crisis issue for the matai system was not the big titles but what was happening to the smaller ones. It was a time of matai suffrage and villages all across the country were into an ugly race to split titles, share them out and increase their voting base. In the process the fa’amatai was being wrecked.
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