7 Weathering Climate Change in Samoa: Cultural Resources for Resilience

Abstract

The fale samoa is the traditional house of Samoa (Figure 7.1). Open walled, with sturdy, smooth wooden pillars placed in an oval, holding up a high reaching, domed roof, all lashed together with strong coconut fiber, thatched thickly with palm leaves. Mata’afa Autagavaia, a Talking Chief and one of the Ministry of Education’s cultural specialists, is particularly attached to the fale and all it stands for. He was part of the workshop circle. He leaned forward, into the challenge within Julie’s summation of the issues pulling back and forth within everyday life in Samoa. “But,” he said, “the fale is a safer house in a cyclone than a European house”: