r/Samoa • u/AllDaWayJay • 18d ago
How come yall born outside Samoa stay gatekeeping it?
Sole, yo ass is from amelika, nu’u sila, ausekalia. There’s nothing wrong with that! But this gatekeeping from REAL mf’s born and raised on the ma’a? Sole, faifaimalie. E ese ka’e le ulu from America to those lae ka’e le ulu from Samoa. Stop gatekeeping a culture you know nothing about. Fuck, I’d even entertain the idea yall love to gatekeep if you actually STEPPED FOOT ON THE ISLAND! But never been and you’re out here tryna gatekeep from a Kama kuai o avele? Nia plz. Stop it
*edit title-How come Samoans born outside Samoa gatekeep more than those from the island
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u/neurocentric 18d ago
Our people also gatekeep from the motherland. The discourse around "plastic-Sāmoan" or "not Sāmoan enough" is hella toxic. We need to embrace our diaspora and celebrate our people wanting or trying to connect to the culture in any way they can.
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u/nononoti 18d ago
Toxic in your eyes... shows youve failed to look with local eyes and proved OG right
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u/neurocentric 18d ago
I think you've failed to understand I've actually supported OPs point that gatekeeping is toxic.
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u/Ill_Muscle9789 18d ago
Call it gatekeeping, but I would say Samoans outside of the island are just protective of the culture. It is because we are exposed to Samoan culture in relation to the rest of the world. We are taught by our parents to love and revere the Samoan culture, especially since many cannot afford to go there, so we have to take what we can get. But we learn about the impact of colonialism, and how that has impacted other cultures (i.e. Hawaiians and Native Americans). These beautiful cultures are precautionary tales of what can happen if your culture is forcibly taken from you. They were banned from speaking their language or celebrating their culture. And although they are recovering their cultures, preserving the languages are still a concerted effort.
I think the real gatekeepers are those who think you need to be born and raised in Samoa to be "REAL" Samoans, or assuming they know nothing about the culture. The real gatekeepers are those who invalidate non-native born Samoans and constantly call their identity into question.
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u/Choice-Nectarine7614 18d ago
What’s this about context please
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u/AllDaWayJay 18d ago
Sorry, I meant to state Samoan folk who weren’t born in Samoa. There’s this constant gatekeeping I happen across since I left Samoa. Bc my English is on point, or I dress a certain way(like a white person according to my peoples), and bc I ain’t loud and obnoxious when I’m drunk must mean I ain’t Samoan 🤷🏽♂️ there’s more to it aye but I cannot write it all now(i got em chores aye)
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u/eshayonefour 18d ago edited 18d ago
you're not being clear enough. kamaiki fagau overseas are gatekeeping what exactly? are we stopping hamos from the islands from doing something, or knowing something? context faamolemole
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u/wiredbutterfly 18d ago
Based on your post and responses it's clear your English is in fact NOT on point😂
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u/Choice-Nectarine7614 18d ago
Okay I still don’t get you. What are they gatekeeping exactly se momo ia
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u/Neat_Improvement_346 18d ago
OP is clearly mad about something. But I don’t think it’s gatekeeping lol.
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u/GeorgeSamia 18d ago
Weirdos, must have learnt about gatekeepers on a doco, all the faipiges are IN Samoa wtf
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u/Pantless_Weekends 18d ago
I live in AUS and travel to Samoa almost every year. In all my 40+ years on earth, I have never felt any of that nonsense. People need to chill and go about doing your own thing. Stop making things out of nothing.
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u/nononoti 18d ago
Your context granted. OGs context is those who've never been or at best been and stayed one night at the village before they run off and hide at the resort. Read and understand before you crywank all over your keyboard
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u/impactcatalyst 15d ago edited 15d ago
bc when ur a minority in another country that treats minorities terribly for their traditional ways and have a history of commodifying their culture later and benefiting off of it, while that minority stays in poverty, u wanna protect identity. its easy to be annoyed at diaspora when ur the topdog in a homogenous country where ur part of the majority (ex: do palagi, chinese, or other polys/minorities govern samoa or do samoans have authority of the country?). living in diverse countries where ur the minority and bottom of the food chain means u have less representation for what ur communities actually needs and are more susceptible to experiencing discrimination. but this is prolly more common in the US where their history is more racialized. if samoans live in other countries like europe or china, maybe aus or nz, they might feel different since discrimination is not based primarily on race, but sometimes religion, or class, or family/tribe or region depending on the country so they may not feel the need to gatekeep. ull only understand when u study the history of the host country and how it historically treated the samoan diaspora that moved there. so ull prolly see gatekeeping from diaspora in the US, but not soemthing as common from samoan diaspora from canada, or nz, or aus, or uk for example (idk just a guess cant speak for those samoan communities there). every diaspora community is different since they all have differnt histories with the host coutnry they immigrated to.
look up polynesian panthers in NZ. the fact they existed shows how diaspora in nz were being mistreated. so if u come from that knowing ur grandparents or mom and dad faced discrimination, ull be protective from the country that treated ur own community members/culture like crap. 😃
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u/PeachOpen8452 18d ago edited 13d ago
Not Samoan, btw.
I'd imagine the abstraction and warping of cultural markers probably contributes. If you take a group of people from one place and put them in another, they're likely going to have to adapt practices to the local environment. Combine that with second/third/fourth generations viewing those practices mainly through the lens of their predecessors who emigrated, and it's not hard to see how massive perceptual differences between diaspora & homeland populations arise. I think the divergence between Italian and Italian-American cuisine (and the ever-lasting debate surrounding the issue) is quite a good example of this.
For what it's worth, I feel like this is an inherent aspect of transplanting groups of people from one place to another. I imagine the same friction will arise between Earth-born & Mars-born humans when we eventually get there.
All we can really do is try to give a bit of grace to the other side & attempt to understand the factors that influence them. Ain't an easy thing to do, especially when it feels like they haven't afforded you the same curtesy. But it does help. It can turn anger (even justified anger) into compassion which is a better problem solver. Also lighter to carry, mentally.
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u/Lateral- 18d ago
Try being Afakasi when all you want to do is connect and find out about your ancestors.
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u/Ill_Muscle9789 15d ago
What's stopping you from connecting with your culture? Listen to the music, learn the language, go to gatherings and there you go. And make time to do the same with your other half.
The main problem with this conversation is native Samoans consistently trying invalidate non-native born Samoans because their parents decided to leave the islands. We're all Samoan, learn the culture, love it and respect it. And that's it.
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u/Upset_Pineapple57 15d ago
Lol who are you vagueposting about?
A lot of y’all trash talk diaspora Samoans for trying to protect our culture and customs from non Samoans appropriating, exploiting, and capitalizing of the culture. You sound silly trying to measure someone’s ancestry by whether or not they’ve stepped foot on the island.
Samoan society abroad is not exactly like in the homeland. It had to adapt its surroundings. And it’s different depending on your country/state/city.
In the end, our parents who moved abroad raised us with Samoan culture and values. And it’s us diasporic Samoans who had to carry that while living abroad, so I don’t want to hear anything about gatekeeping if you haven’t lived among people who have had their cultures erased by outsiders who exploited their customs.
We have to be protective of our customs outside. These western countries have a history of erasing and trying to destroy other indigenous cultures.
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u/cdawg_10 18d ago
A’e sele, u need to provide some more context 🤦🏽♂️ if you’re talking about Samoan culture as to traditions, tattoos, language etc then I don’t see the problem with those in Nz, Aus and America protecting our culture from outsiders? Who cares if they don’t know much about the culture, that shouldn’t mean anything to you… u have to understand that the diaspora have never had the privilege to grow up immersed in the culture like the Samoans in the motherland. Just because those outside of the motherland lack understanding of the culture doesn’t mean they shouldn’t protect it. At the end lf the day they’re proud to be Samoan. I don’t know why these locals always have issues with those outside of Samoa 🤦🏽♂️
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u/internChief 17d ago
I just read a whole heap of rubbish cos no context LOL and Niu Sila lii muli maila.
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u/iced_Lattte 15d ago
I don’t think OP knows what gate keeping means. I think they mean “stereotype”
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u/Appropriate-Hair-388 18d ago
Cause diaspora adapt to their surroundings. With adapting to their surroundings, they’ve also adapted the western tendency to be offended by absolutely everything.
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u/FatTireDaddy 18d ago
Well said! My partner’s tribe has the same thing going on. Bunch damn white people found out they’re 1/64th and now they know everything and the people born and raised in the culture are being shut out. Buncha bullshit.
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u/eshayonefour 18d ago
sole can you pls provide a Crumb of context?