Samoan people

The Samoans (tagata Samoa), Polynesians of the Samoan Islands divided between independent Samoa and American Samoa, speak one language under two flags. Their Lapita ancestors reached the archipelago three thousand years ago, and Samoa became the stepping stone of Eastern Polynesia: from here canoes, gods, chiefly titles and the faa Samoa way spread to Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and Aotearoa. Mound-building, tattooing, kava ceremony and the matai chiefly system ordered an aristocratic seafaring society; Tongan, Fijian and French Polynesian histories all begin in Samoan genealogies. Missionaries, copra traders, German, American and New Zealand rulers divided the islands, but the aiga extended family, the village fono and malu-tatau tattoos keep faa Samoa. Apia markets, Pago Pago canneries and the diaspora of Auckland and Honolulu carry the mother culture onward. Two flags fly over one Samoan language. Tonga, Fiji and Tahiti all trace titles to Samoa. Trade, religion and war still mark Samoan pride.