Independence Anniversary Celebrations

On the 2nd and 3rd June 2008 we attended the 46th Independence Anniversary celebrations. This involved getting up at 6.00am to make our way to Mulinuu where the Parliament buildings are. There were a lot of schools and local business and community groups gathered for the march past all dressed in their uniform colours. USP were also there. We had a 100% turn out of USP Library staff which was great! Apparently it is necessary to hold the march past and official speeches for Independence at this hour of the morning so that people aren’t standing around in the heat for too long. Well we got there at 6.45 and we waited …. and waited … and then waited some more. People were flooding in via all means. The road was chokker with taxi’s, cars and busses and people were also walking up the peninsula along the sea wall. Unfortunately we couldn’t hear any of the speeches by the Prime Minister or other officials as the PA system wasn’t loud enough. So instead we stood around, shuffled from foot to foot or some people took to sitting on the ground while we waited. Eventually the march past (this was past the Head of State) began group by group but it still took until about 9.30am before the USP group began to move. Some schools, soccer teams and Samoan cultural groups stopped to perform a quick act for the Head of State on their way past. It was quite an experience despite the waiting around. After the march past USP supplied us with sandwiches and cold water which was much appreciated. Adam and I then decided to stay and watch some of the traditional entertainment that was planned for the day. We had to find ourselves a seat in the shade so ended up in the fale with the “Healthy Samoa” team who seemed to be the between acts entertainment. They had everyone (apart from us palangis!) up dancing about doing some aerobics on the grass all in aid of promoting a healthy lifestyle. I learnt to count to 4 here as they were shouting the beats out over the microphone – tasi, lua, tolu, fa – 1, 2, 3. 4! Very similar to counting in Maori. There was a pretty impressive display of marching and pipe band by the Samoan Police all dressed in white and the tallest Policeman I have ever seen. I swear he was 7 foot tall!

The entertainment included a weaving competition. Several males lined up and prepared themselves by laying out their palm leaves and coconuts. We soon found out what they were up to. You will see in the photos the baskets and platters that they made. They also shelled and cut up coconut to serve. Pretty nifty use of palm leaves that’s for sure. We also watched some traditional games which consisted of sliding coconut shell pieces along a woven mat I think with the aim of not letting it fall off the edge. This was about it for us for day 1. We headed home after this to relax.

On the Tuesday however we headed back to Mulinuu for some more traditional entertainment. On this day there were performances by the groups selected for the Festival of Arts in American Samoa. The groups were excellent. They performed a variety of singing, dancing and warrior type moves. Then I had to go to work ………………………