Fa’atagata’esea i Nu’u ‘Ese Samoan Faife‘au Kids as Tagata‘ese and Alo ‘o Fa‘afeagaiga in New Zealand

Abstract

Research has been conducted into the experiences of Samoan youth (Anae 1998; Tiatia 1998) in relation to Christian churches (Crawford 1977; Taule’ale’ausumai 1994), often resulting in the polarization between emphasizing the positive (Fanaafi, 1996) and drawing attention to the negative (Tiatia, 1998) aspects of fa’asāmoa. Academics such as So’o (2007) and Tuiatua (2008) take an intermediary approach. Yet none of the literature on Samoan youth and church has given attention to the tagata’ese (stranger) experiences of Samoan faife’au kids (FKs). The term 'stranger' here, refers to someone in a place that he/she is not familiar with or genealogically connected to. Faife’au is the Samoan term for pastor. The term 'kids', although informal, is a colloquial term used by Samoans to identify pastors' children; in addition it is used in mainstream literature on pastors' kids (PKs). This research involves bringing together two perspectives, those of FKs and faife’au in order to investigate the tagata’ese experiences of FKs. This study focuses on both the Ekalesia Fa’apotopotoga Kerisiano Amerika Sāmoa (E.F.K.A.S.) and the Ekalesia Fa’apotopotoga Kerisiano i Sāmoa (E.F.K.S.) church denomination in New Zealand. The E.F.K.S. (and recently the E.F.K.A.S.) is the only Samoan denomination that historically claimed a special covenant, practising what Samoans call osigā feagaiga, a ritual of initiation between the 'aulotu (church congregation) with the new faife’au and his faletua (wife) on their first day of arrival. However, the Metotisi (Methodist) and Katoliko (Catholic) denominations have recently adopted the same concept to an extent. Talanoa is the methodology that has been used for the research. This is a semi-structured interview process that allows the researcher and participants to engage in deep conversation. The objective is to explore the tagata’ese and feagaiga experiences of FKs by firstly investigating their perceptions of expectations. A secondary objective is to examine the privileges of FKs. Thirdly, the perceptions of current faife’au and will be sought regarding their expectations of FKs, and the privileges they think FKs enjoy. The final objective is to use the analysis of FKs experiences to provide an alternative to the dominant and polarizing tendencies in research literature on the fa’asāmoa.