Housing to meet the cultural needs of Samoans in urban Wellington

Abstract

Since the post World War II years , there has been an increasing number of Samoans emigrating to New Zealand cities and have become well established in this country with their culture. Furthermore they still keep their ties with their homeland via what Kallen [1982] terms the "kinship bridge" which also serves to strengthen their cultural ties and practices. However, housing for these people has not developed in conjunction with their cultural values. Housing currently occupied by Samoans relates essentially to European rather than Samoan cultural behaviourial patterns and traditions. Therefore this report is aimed at establishing whether there is a need, for the evolution of particular forms of housing for these people in terms of their values and identity needs in this country and in the form that this may be appropriate. In order to achieve the latter, the report will examine the traditional Samoan values and the New Zealand Samoan community context and its cultural variations as compared to the traditional Samoan values. Subsequently it will focus on the cultural imprints inherent in traditional Samoan architecture , that is how the Samoan values and the architecture relate. The second stage will concentrate on precedent cases of housing already developed, if any, and the lessons that can be learned from them. Furthermore the report will also concentrate on the opinions of the Samoan community , via a questionnaire. It is the intention of the questionnaire to obtain a general opinion of the important issues to be examined for a new form of housing, that is if it is necessary.