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A fisaga matagi, sisi le la fala. A lutaluta le tai sisi le la ‘afa.
This was the theme for this year’s So’otaga conference held in Auckland. The four day conference consisting of cultural and christian items and many other activities, saw Samoan groups from three Universities in the country come together.
CUSSA (Canterbury University Samoan Students Association), VUSSA (Victoria University Samoan Students Association) and UASSA (University of Auckland Samoan Students Association) came together last Thursday to commence the festivities for so’otaga.
Sootaga was established in the year 1979, as a pathway to nurture our younger generation in New Zealand regarding the Samoan culture and language. From its humble beginnings to now, it has become an annual event making it one of the most anticipated events for tertiary students across New Zealand. COVID has disrupted the program over the last two years, making this year’s event more special.
The program was divided into four main parts across the four days. Sports, cultural, christian and academics. Each group had been practising over the past months perfecting every action and lyric to their performances. Added into the academics program was the inclusion of daily Samoan cultural rituals such as the sulatoga and folafola saumolia. Such rituals are pivotal in the culture and are performed a lot in family and community gatherings.
The program started with an ava ceremony last Friday, a common practice in the Samoan culture honouring guests and those present. Following the ava ceremony was the academics competition, seeing delegated students partake in different forms of the culture. Alongside the sulatoga and folafola saumolia were speeches and debates, where students argued on present matters in today’s society.
For so’o participant Lufilufi Lene Isara, his experiences in this year’s so’otaga fuelled his appreciative love towards the culture and Samoan language. The young Engineering student from the University of Canterbury has been in CUSSA for two years now, with this being his first experience of so’otaga.
“This was my first so’otaga and I loved it. Our asosi came in knowing we had to make the most of what we had and it was an awesome experience”.
“Met so many new people, learned new skills and got to participate in various activities essential to the culture”.
Saturday saw the three groups battle it out on the sports field through turbo touch and Samoan sport lape. Each group wore their respected sports colours and paraded on the field with their chants. Later on in the evening, members danced the night away at social night, a fitting event to break the earlier events and its commotions.
On Sunday, a church service was held at PIC Newton, followed by a christian rally which saw the groups participate in religious items, skits and dances. As the culture was on display, it was also important to partake in the christian aspect of so’otaga, given that Samoa is a country founded on God.
On Monday, which was also the final day of so’otaga, members of the public gathered at Malaeola community centre to witness the cultural performances by each group. It was a great conclusion to the four day event, with captivating dances and amazing voices on display.
VUSSA from Wellington took out first place for cultural night, wowing judges and the audience with a beautiful set. It was a well deserved reward for the group, after two years of having no so’o due to COVID.
“COVID will always be in the picture, and i think it will stay like that for a while”. Lene Isara said.
“We had plans in place to make sure we were prepared for anything. Other than that, preparing was a difficult but fun journey”.
“The whole point of so’otaga is to bring together Samoan students who are undertaking tertiary studies. Mafutaga is a word that comes to mind. It’s what makes sootaga, sootaga”.
