Miss Samoa NZ reflects on her historic three-year reign and how being a nurse changed her role

Miss Samoa, Miss Samoa NZ and Miss Pacific Islands Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu. Photo / CY Photography-Apia Samoa

When a young public health nurse from South Auckland won the coveted Miss Samoa title three years ago, no one would have known just how historic her reign would turn out to be.

Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu will officially hand over her crown as Miss Samoa New Zealand tonight, after the pageant was put on hold in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic turned the world upside down.

The 26-year-old from Otara holds three titles she won in 2019: Miss Samoa NZ, Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Islands. She is the first pageant winner of all three crowns to hold the titles for more than a year.

Her experience as a public health nurse for Counties Manukau District Health Board, however, meant her time as a pageant queen turned into three years of working to help local communities in her motherland, when the measles epidemic turned deadly, and then back in Auckland when Covid spread around Pasifika families.

Outgoing Miss Samoa Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu pictured in 2019 during Samoa's nation-wide measles vaccination campaign. Photo / UNICEF Pacific

"When I was preparing to fly over to Samoa [in September, 2019], the measles had spread in the South Auckland community. So a lot of the job that I did, as a nurse, was to go out and vaccinate for the measles and to spread messages.

"Samoa hadn't actually had any of its cases [then]. Once I'd moved to Samoa, that's when we had our first cases.

"It was sad and I started using my platform around messages about getting vaccinated."

Part of the work McFarland-Seumanu started to get involved in was helping to promote the need to get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination and for children, in particular.

The fight against measles

This was a big obstacle in Samoa at the time, as many people within the community remained fearful about getting their children vaccinated after two 1-year-old infants died in 2018 after receiving MMR vaccinations later found to have been incorrectly prepared.

After those deaths, the Samoan Government put a hold on the vaccination programme for several months.

By the end of 2019, thousands of cases of measles had been reported and by early the next year, a total of 83 people had died from the disease - the majority of them being young children.

McFarland-Seumanu still remembers the moment she was told of the worsening situation in Samoa while preparing for the Miss Pacific Islands pageant in Papua New Guinea, in November, 2019 - a requirement for all respective Pacific nations' beauty queens to take part in, after winning their home nation pageant.

"The plan was for me to come home [to New Zealand] and spend Christmas straight after, because I'd been in Samoa for three months.

"But measles had hit by then and we were losing more and more people. I received a call from Samoa that said: 'Look, we've got a lot of volunteers, but we don't have enough authorised vaccinators. Can you come back to Samoa'?"

She offered to fly back immediately, but was encouraged to finish the Miss Pacific Islands pageant that day in a bid to try to bring back good news to her country - which she would do.

Miss Samoa NZ Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu will hand over her crown tonight after three years. Photo / CY Photography-Apia Samoa

"I remember before going on stage, the Minister of Health from Papua New Guinea announced how many lives were lost and by then, I think we were sitting at 65.

"I just cried backstage. The committee asked me: 'Are you okay?' I said: 'No, I'm not, because that was so preventable'."

On arrival back in Samoa, McFarland-Seumanu's new title Miss Pacific Islands would ultimately give her a bigger platform to carry out health promotions and to encourage people to get vaccinated against measles.

Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu was part of the Samoan measles vaccination campaign in 2019. Photo / UNICEF Pacific

Health authorities announced that Miss Samoa would be at a vaccination centre the next day - and it seems her celebrity status worked.

"I turned up that morning and there was a huge line of people waiting. They wanted the Miss Samoa to give them their jabs and wanted me to pose for photos," she laughed.

McFarland-Seumanu would also take part in the historic lockdown that saw the country shut down for two days as health workers went door-to-door to give MMR vaccinations to any home with a red flag posted outside - showing they had unvaccinated people inside.

"I didn't imagine that we would be driving through a village where everyone had red flags out. I can't put it into words.

"I was humbled to see that they were now accepting the help, but also a bit of me was sad because we were losing lives. For me, there was a sense of urgency. I'd cry and then say: 'Get over it. Get out there and get it done'."

Fast-forward to 2020, when another deadly virus was now the only thing anyone around the world was talking about.

Outgoing Miss Samoa Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu pictured after giving Olympic and Commonwealth Games champ Dame Valerie Adams a Covid-19 vaccination last year. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Instead of finishing up her official reign that year, all three pageants were put on hold and so she was asked to stay on - in her roles, but also in Samoa, where her nursing experience was still very much needed.

Learning from its tragic experience with measles, Samoa was one of the first countries to shut its international borders as the country fought to keep Covid out of the community.

McFarland-Seumanu was asked to do volunteer work in a screening capacity at the airport - taking people's temperatures and asking screen questions.

Her work also included giving health advice and promotions via social media site Facebook.

Today, McFarland-Seumanu is back living at home in Otara and has been working in the fight against Covid here in Auckland too.

'It's time to pass this on to the next sister'

She has since been promoted to the role of a clinical nurse specialist at Kidz First Children's Hospital, at Middlemore Hospital.

She attributes her newfound love for working with children to her time out on the nursing frontline in Samoa during her time as a pageant queen.

"I found through this that I'm actually really passionate about working with children - and that's something I had to learn along the way."

On passing her crown to the next Miss Samoa NZ tonight, her message is one of reflection and encouragement.

"I'm really looking forward to just passing the baton on. It's a full-time job and I'm so grateful for all the learnings and the experience that I've got from this.

"But I do believe it's time to pass this on to the next sister and I'm excited to see what she will do with the platform."