Project emblem and website artwork, Rosaiviti Solomona’
O le pine fa’ailo o lenei poloketi ma mamanu oi lenei so’oatulau – Rosaiviti Solomona
To find you
Again
After finally succumbing
To the ancestral cries
That at first whispered
In our childhood dreams
Then escalated
As more and more time is lost
to the high-tech era of your childrens children
Lies the urgent and pulsating beat
Of the Logo (giant bass bass drum)
Remembered to be of ghost’s past
If remembered at all.
In the dark of the early morn
Where the birds’ chorus peaks
Rises the descant of the fagufagu
The wooden nose flute
Singing our chants of old
Where earth, sea and sky were one
With the Nu’u o Agaga (spirit world)
The realm where the tu’itu’i (bamboo stamping tube)
calls out to our ancestors to join us
In dance and song.
No more are you stamped when we dance
No more are the descant chants of our faalupega (identity statements)
Played In our memories
Distant memories
Soon to be lost
Like the rotten remnants
of a once treasured Logo
Whose beats are resonant
No more.
rosaivitilesaualofaoleola
The logo I designed is for exciting research we are embarking on called “Recovering Samoan Instrumental Music to Promote Cultural Heritage and Enterprise”. It is a collaborative project between the National University of Samoa and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, UK and a must to do now before it really is too late.
In the logo design, the ‘LOGO’ is believed to be the largest slit drum of Polynesia but unfortunately is being replaced by empty oxygen tanks to sound the starting of church worship. Thus representing all that is on the verge of permanent loss; the context of our customary instruments, their ceremonial and social importance, the original wood and bamboo (resources) they are made of, the traditional tools used, traditional roles pertaining to hierarchical instruments… basically “identity” in a world where we celebrate Pasifika interconnectedness at the risk of losing whats uniquely us, Samoa.
And the FUE (ceremonial fly whisk used during Samoan oratory)is what we hope our customary instruments will be; in existence, identifiable, currently used and purposefully maintained. Not archaeological souvenirs of our myths rewritten (and omitted) by the palagi missionary and contemporary researchers. *sigh more to come… Le Sau Alofa
