Fofoa-i-vao-'ese : the identity journeys of NZ-born Samoans

Abstract

This thesis constitutes a site for New Zealand-born Samoans to explore issues of ethnic identity. The emphasis is on the process of the Samoanising of christianity, and hegemonic identity discourses of not only the dominant society but of island-born Samoans and elders, and how this contributes to New Zealand-born Samoan self perceptions. A socio-historical overview provides an understanding of the process in which New Zealand born Samoans have been positioned. The stories and narratives of a group of New Zealandborn Samoans concerning their life experiences provide valuable insights into their 'identity journeys'--the construction of ethnic identity through experimenting with subject positions over time, as a result of challenges to their percieved self-identities. For some, this journey ends with a secured identity--a self-satisfying ethnic identity as a New Zealand-born Samoan--others remain in a perpetual state of conscious or subconscious identity confusion. More specifically the thesis seeks to provide an understanding and an interpretation of the way fa'aSamoa, church, and life in New Zealand impacts on life choices and on the construction of the self, and secured identities. The identity journey is analysed as a ritual and a series of rites of passage in order to expose the structure of identity confusion, and to examine the dichotomy of chaos and conflict within an apparently ordered society, experienced by New Zealand-born Samoans during their identity journeys.The thesis is therefore underpinned by Samoan conceptual frameworks involved in this identity journey, and aims to consciousness-raise and emancipate by exposing, understanding and reclaiming the links between fa'aSamoa, church, and a New Zealand born Samoan identity.The thesis represents an 'ie toga, because like a fine mat being woven, the strands of Samoan history, fa'aSamoa and Samoan contemporary lifeways, and their interaction with 'others' interconnect to inform Samoan identity. It is thus presented with respect, gratitude, deference, recognition and obligation, a tangible symbol of an alliance and an exchange with all Samoans and others. As the wellspring of my Samoan identity, in its creativity in design and fineness of weave, I hope that this 'ie toga will be received as a source of identity, history and wealth.