Tauiliili Suilolo Tivoli with the flag of Samoa which is celebrating its 60th Independence Day. Photo / Dean Purcell
Tauiliili Suilolo Tivoli with the flag of Samoa which is celebrating its 60th Independence Day. Photo / Dean Purcell
Samoa marks a huge milestone today, celebrating 60 years of being an independent nation.
But that independence may not have happened had it not been for the brave freedom fighters who fought against foreign rule, including renowned chief and orator Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe Tivolī.
"We are very proud of him and what he fought for," Lauaki's Auckland-based great-granddaughter, Tauiliili Suilolo Tivolī says.
"He's known as a warrior. But he was a warrior who did not use weapons to fight for what he believed in - he used his words."
In the early 1900s, Lauaki led a group - Mau a Pule - representing village chiefs and leaders who were against losing traditional Samoan authority under then German administration.
They believed it was wrong that village and family leaders effectively had no say in the way the country and its people were being cared for.
Tauiliili Suilolo Tivoli holds a portrait of her great grandfather Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe Tivolī. Photo / Dean Purcell
Lauaki's efforts would lead to him him and a number of his followers being arrested and then exiled to Saipan, a German colony, in the Mariana Islands.
When he was finally allowed back to Samoa, he died on the journey home.
"He never got to see all that has happened. He never got to see the free Samoa he had fought for," Tivolī said.
In later years, New Zealand took over control of Samoa and, just like Lauaki, many did not agree with foreign rule.
Another Mau movement was born as a result and eventually the country became independent from New Zealand administration - albeit after 11 Samoans, including paramount chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, were killed when New Zealand military police opened fire during a peaceful protest in December, 1929.
Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe Tivolī led the original Mau a Pule movement in Samoa in the early 1900s. Photo / NZ National Library, Alexander Turnbull Collection
In 1962, Samoa celebrated its first independence day. The country became independent on January 1 that year, but the event is observed on June 1.
Tivolī said their family continued to acknowledge their famous ancestor's role in the independence story so that generations later would not forget.
"There are many stories that have gone around over the years about who he was, but we know the true story."
Among the things the family wanted to correct was that Lauaki had only one son and that was to his first wife, Suilolo. His second wife, Sivao, could not have children.
Tivolī still remembers growing up in their village, Fogapoa in Savaii, and the steady stream of tourists who would find the family home in the hopes of getting photos at Lauaki's tomb.
"His fue [ceremonial fly whisk] and to'oto'o [staff] used to hang on the wall in our fale - next to a big photo of King George and Queen Elizabeth," she recalls.
"We also have a tooth the old man gave his son, my grandfather, before they were exiled. It was his parting goodbye - that his son keep the tooth and that our family remain peaceful.
"That is how it is today - our family have not fought over land or titles or anything like that. We have remained peaceful - just as the old man said."
