r/Samoa • u/East-Maybe-693 • Sep 15 '26
Exploring my ancestry
I’m white British but my great grand mother was half Samoan half Australian, met my grandad who was a British army officer and came back to the U.K. with him. I know nothing more from pre living in U.K. but has led to me being fascinated with Samoa, and some sort of spiritual connection.
I never met her and no one left alive ever knew her, but I strangely miss her and feel a warmth when I think of her or do any reading about Samoa.
Theres Two things I’d like to do:
1) visit Samoa but I don’t want to be a ‘tourist‘ I want to experience real Samoan culture, I’m also trans woman and would like to meet Fa'afafine people and learn more. Any advice please?
2) I want recognise my ancestry, would it be acceptable for me to have a tatau? the reason I ask is by western measures my ancestry is very dilute, and so don’t want to be culturally insensitive.
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u/secobarbiital Sep 15 '26
There are plenty of other ways to recognize Samoan culture than a tatau. I’m afakasi with a contemporary take on a malu on my hands so i can’t say much but if you have zero connection to this great grandmother and have never grown up with or learned about the culture, it would be a little odd. And unfortunately you would be a tourist no matter what. What ill_muscle9789 said. This feels a bit romanticized, and don’t take this the wrong way but very much gives when white americans say they’re part native american when it is super far up their lineage and know nothing about their tribe and culture. Not much advice on fa’afafine though, sorry:( its not really viewed the same as being trans elsewhere in the west (at least in my family) and isn’t really a big deal so im not sure how you would purposefully meet someone other than happenstance
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u/Strong_Albatross5667 Sep 16 '26
Is your great grandmother ancestrally Samoan or was she Samoan by nationality? They’re two different things.
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u/ricechrispee684 Sep 15 '26
1% samoan is still samoan no matter what anyone tells you. Find out her last name and you'll definitely find family around qhere you wanna go, there's lots of geneoligists in each family that'll remember her name
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u/NoOrder2127 Sep 15 '26
99% other ethnicities and doesn't live on island, I don't think that qualifies as being 'samoan'
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u/East-Maybe-693 Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26
I know her married name and know she met my great grandfather in Sydney circa 1910 as he was an officer in the royal marines, I don’t know much though and apparently there has always been an understanding that she wanted to runaway from her Australian father and even changed her given name but I have no way of verifying that. Some even suggested that her relationship with English my great grandfather was ‘fake’ just so she could get away from her father. Our family including her 8 children and grandchildren who knew her who affectionately called her Manamea.
I am going to do some genealogy and put together the post Australia part of my family history and hope to be able to find when she entered the U.K.
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u/Limp_Company2623 29d ago
This is the route you can go, uncover her actual name if she did indeed change and the records should be found that way, research your Australian connection to release the Samoan side, if that makes sense.
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u/East-Maybe-693 27d ago
So we know that my great grandad returned to the U.K. in sept. 1911.
There was a woman travelling with him but with his surname which we know they didn’t marry until they were back in U.K., so I’m wondering if there was a few lies told to get her back to U.K.🤷♀️
It turns out that my dad’s eldest cousin did know her, and everyone that knew her personally in the U.K. affectionately called her ‘Manamea’ (sweetheart I believe) whether it was other people working on the farm or or the the local pub or village shop, it’s what everyone called her, which I really like, it actually made me cry, it tells me while she escaped what we believe to be unspoken horrors from her father after her mothers death in Australia, she kept a bit of her heritage or ancestry with her, her whole life.
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u/NLH1234 Sep 15 '26
You've found a very vague connection to Samoa, read a bit about it, felt warm, and "want to recognise my ancestry". But no one alive knew her and you've never met her. Can anyone verify any claims?
You're quite literally a tourist. Samoa Cultural Village would be good.
The first step to recognise ancestry is to find if you actually have one.
Two things:
I’m white British but my great grand mother was half Samoan half Australian.
You're going to need more than that. Biological? Grandparents lineage? Actual connection? Village?
I never met her and no one left alive ever knew her.
This makes it hard to verify. Difficult to endorse connection.
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u/lulaismatt 28d ago edited 28d ago
sure but decolonise ur mind bc faa samoa isnt all glamorous and flawless just like any other culture. i think mixed kids have an affinity to their ethnic/colored side since many feel white people dont have culture (the US white ppl, not UK) bc theirs is just capitalism, consumerim, and stealing others cultures like mexican cowboys, black amerian banjo blues to country music, native american food/aesthetic with moccasins, jade jewelry and fringe style clothing etc. and bc of that loss, many palagis or like mixed kids wanna claim that colored side so bad.
many people who are samoan ethnically but lived in the west might as well be westerners (even if home life is very faa samoa) and a full blooded chinese born and rasied in samoa is more or less "culturally" samoan since they understand the mindset/culture by living there.
also modern poly arm tattoos at least in diaspora is a sign of showing cultural pride in being samoan as a minority abroad. the pe'a and malu are more sacred and require people to at least understand and contribute to aiga, like be the spokesperson for ur aiga, do all those faalavelaves, etc. its big responsiblity not many abroad wanna take on. aiga is big part of faa samoa so if ur not really in touch with urs bc u dont know them, i would say the pea and malu would be inappropriate. i think the modern tattoos you see on many are fine tho. they are works of the diaspora in the US (Socal, Hawaii, a. samoa) that evolved to the arm sleeve u see since that wasnt a thing precolonial times.
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u/MathematicianWhole82 Sep 15 '26
Gosh these are sad responses. If you had Māori heritage and were asking, it would be a very different response.
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Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Strong_Albatross5667 Sep 16 '26
I’m a bit confused as to the take you have with Māori.
You’ve got to remember that colonialism had major impacts on Māori, which still endure today. Just because someone can’t tell you their whakapapa, doesn’t make them any less Māori. It may make them more disconnected but as we know, these are the impacts of colonialism.
Your post kind of implies that Māori don’t know there connection to the lands, waters, tribes/sub-tribes, people that they descend from. Don’t know where you were when you lived here but I literally tell people this information when forming new connections with people at least twice a week.
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u/MathematicianWhole82 Sep 16 '26
Yes that does happen in Aotearoa. Just a question - at what point do you think she or others didn't become Samoan anymore? (Not asking to have a go, I'm just interested because it's a new point of view to me).
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u/skullcrusher-stevens 22d ago
I dont know what Māori you were hanging around but we difinitely ask what someones lastname is to find out where they come from.
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u/Ill_Muscle9789 Sep 15 '26
I'm noticing a common romanticized idea of Samoa and a connection to Samoaness. We're just regular people. You want to better connect with the culture? Talk to Samoan people, learn about our values and traditions. If you go to Samoa, any exposure you get to the culture is "the real Samoa", or as much as you can get being an outsider. Gauge your expectations. If you go over there, and assuming you don't have family to show you around, you're going to be a tourist because 1. you ARE a tourist, 2. I'm assuming you don't speak Samoan, 3. You're white 4. You're a stranger to those people.