Group: Robert De Haven, Dylan Price, Noel Mendez, Colette Tesoro
Samoan funerary practices — particularly the ritual use of coconut oil (suamoli) to anoint the dead — reveal how Indigenous bodily and spiritual knowledge persists despite Christian colonization, and how fa’alavelave (communal obligation) sustains community wellbeing through collective mourning.
Written by: [assign group member]
Indigenous Pacific health frameworks reveal that wellbeing is inherently relational, communal, and spiritual — and that death rituals are not separate from health but central to it. Western biomedical models cannot capture what fa’alavelave does for Sāmoan communities.
Primary source: Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann (2001); Fonofale Model Explanation PDF (your group’s extra source)
Key points: - The Fonofale (traditional Sāmoan fale/house) is the central metaphor - Foundation = Family (aiga) — the most important element; everything is built on it - Four Pou (posts/pillars): Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Other health dimensions - Roof = Culture — culture shelters and shapes all health experiences - Context factors (the “environment” surrounding the fale): Time, Environment, Socio-economic status - Why it matters for the paper: Funerary rituals directly address every pillar simultaneously — they care for the physical body (suamoli), provide mental structure to grief, activate spiritual beliefs about agaga/afterlife, and are entirely organized through aiga (the foundation)
Quote to use: > “The Fonofale model recognizes that Pacific peoples’ health is holistic — physical, mental, spiritual and other health dimensions are inseparable and must be considered together within the context of family, culture, time, environment, and socioeconomic factors.” (Fonofale Model Explanation, ActionPoint NZ)
Diagram: Include the Fonofale model diagram. Download from: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/actionpoint/pages/437/attachments/original/1534408956/Fonofalemodelexplanation.pdf
Primary source: Le Va, Global Pacific Solutions: Highlights Report 2025 (Week 1 course reading)
Key points: - Le Va = the relational space between people; the sacred space of connection - In Sāmoan cosmology, le va exists not just between the living but between the living and the dead — ancestors remain relational presences - Le Va’s framework insists on Pacific-led, community-driven health solutions - Why it matters: The fa’alavelave system is a living expression of le va — it maintains the relational space between the deceased and the living through material exchange, presence, and ritual
Primary source: Kūkulu Kumuhana Planning Committee, Creating Radical and New Knowledge to Improve Native Hawaiian Wellbeing (2017) — Week 1 course reading
Key points: - Argues that Indigenous knowledge must be centered, not just acknowledged, in health research - Critiques Western research that treats Indigenous practices as supplementary or folkloric - Apply to paper: Western medicine and grief counseling frameworks (e.g., Kübler-Ross’s 5 stages) are inadequate for understanding fa’alavelave; Sāmoan funerary practice IS the health intervention
Quote direction: Use Kūkulu Kumuhana to argue that this paper itself is an exercise in centering Indigenous knowledge — not analyzing it from outside.
Primary source: Manulani Aluli Meyer, “Spirituality Centred around Aloha/Pono: A Discipline of Love and Truth,” in ReSTORYing the Pasifika Household (Week 2 course reading), pp. 105-114
Key points: - Meyer (Hawaiian) argues that Indigenous Pacific spirituality is not a department of life but its organizing principle - Pono = rightness/balance — when someone dies, pono is disrupted; funerary ritual restores it - Aloha is not sentiment but relational accountability — the obligation to show up for the dead and their family is an act of aloha - Why it matters: The fa’alavelave obligation system is a direct expression of this principle — attendance, gifting, and mourning are acts of relational love, not just social custom
Connect: “These frameworks — Fonofale, Le Va, Kūkulu Kumuhana, and Meyer’s aloha/pono — together form a lens through which we can understand Sāmoan funerary practice not as ritual for its own sake, but as a sophisticated, community-organized health system. The following section describes that system in detail.”
Written by: [assign group member]
Sāmoan funerary practice — from the anointing of the body with suamoli to the elaborate exchange of measina — is a complete, embodied ritual system that treats death as a communal, spiritual, and material event, not a private one.
Key points: - Fa’alavelave = literally “entanglement” or “complication” — used to describe major life events (weddings, funerals) that require communal mobilization - At a death, the entire aiga (extended family network, including diaspora) is expected to gather, contribute financially, and participate - Functions as a redistribution economy: fine mats (ie toga), food, and money circulate based on rank, relationship, and obligation - The matai (chief) of the family oversees proceedings and oratory
Source: Alefosio & Henderson (2018), “On Skin and Bone: Samoan Coconut Oil in Indigenous Practice,” Journal of Pacific History, 53(4), pp. 397-416
Primary source: Alefosio & Henderson (2018) — this is your anchor article
Key points: - Suamoli = coconut oil, pressed from mature coconuts, historically produced by women - Applied to the body of the deceased as part of preparation for lying in state - Alefosio & Henderson argue suamoli “mediates between the living and the dead” — it is not merely cosmetic but ontologically significant: it maintains the body as a site of social meaning - Oil preserves and dignifies — a preserved, fragrant body = respect for the deceased and their family’s mana - Historically, suamoli was also used to anoint living bodies of high rank — its use in death is continuous with its use in life - Bone-washing practice: After burial, bones may be exhumed and washed/anointed — connects to the CSWR Harvard “Weaving Lineage in Sāmoa” (Lautua, 2026) piece that your group flagged: “My family preparing to participate in a ta’alolo” and the discussion of ancestors remaining present through physical care
Quote to use (Alefosio & Henderson direction): The article argues that coconut oil in Sāmoan practice “connects the human body to genealogical networks” — suamoli is not a product but a relationship.
Primary source: Jones & Ahlgren (2022), “A collector of ideas: Roland Burrage Dixon and the beginnings of professional American anthropology in the Pacific,” Week 12
Key points: - The Peabody Museum holds Pacific measina (treasures) including ie toga, ornaments, weapons, and items associated with chiefly death - Roland Burrage Dixon collected these objects in the early 1900s — removing them from their ritual context - Viewing them in a Harvard museum: these objects were made for exchange and relationship, not display - Positionality reflection: As non-Sāmoan students viewing these objects, we occupy the same position as Dixon — outsiders encountering sacred material culture. Acknowledging this is required by the rubric (“infographic/visuals that enhance the report” + video positionality) - Powerful angle: A suamoli vessel or fine mat in the Peabody is an object frozen in time, removed from the relational system that gave it meaning — contrast with what these objects DO when they circulate in a fa’alavelave
Written by: [assign group member]
Fa’alavelave is not a burden on the community — it IS the community’s healing mechanism. The ritual structure of Sāmoan funerary practice provides a scaffolding for grief that serves every dimension of the Fonofale model, and its disruption (particularly in diaspora contexts) has measurable effects on mental health.
Key points: - The elaborate protocol of fa’alavelave — who sits where, who speaks when, what is exchanged — removes individuals from the paralysis of personal grief and places them inside a collective framework - This is not suppression of grief; the tagi (wailing) is expected and performed — grief has a form, a time, a place - Fonofale application: the ritual addresses all four pillars simultaneously - Physical: Preparing and caring for the body; gathering, cooking, being present - Mental: Structure reduces ambiguity; communal presence reduces isolation - Spiritual: Prayers, lauga, and belief in the agaga’s journey provide meaning - Aiga (foundation): The entire ritual reaffirms who the family is
Source: PMN article — Nalei Taufa (PhD candidate, Tongan grief & healing): “Pacific grief is communal, spiritual and ongoing, contrasting with Western models” and “Grief through our cultural traditions… leaning into that pain together” (“Embracing Grief: The Sacred Space of Sāmoan and Tongan Traditions in Mourning,” PMN, Sept 2025)
Key points: - Alefosio & Henderson: the preservation and dignification of the body through suamoli provides closure for the living - A body that is cared for = a life that mattered; the living family’s mana is expressed through how they treat their dead - Lautua (CSWR Harvard, 2026): “When a Sāmoan steps out into the world, it is understood she represents her family, living and deceased; she is her full lineage” — caring for the dead is caring for the identity of the living
Primary source: PMN article (Taufa, 2025) + ABC Pacific podcast (Week 11)
Key points: - Diaspora Sāmoans (in NZ, Australia, US) face enormous pressure to participate in fa’alavelave — flights, financial contributions, time off work - When they cannot, the psychological consequence is grief plus guilt plus shame (má) - The ABC Pacific podcast (Week 11, “Chiefs, warriors, and ancient Pacific rituals — how has honouring the dead changed?”) addresses exactly this transition — what is lost when modernization and migration compress or eliminate traditional practice - Week 9 mental wellbeing connection: Course readings show Pacific communities with strong cultural practice have better mental health outcomes — the inverse is also true
Counterargument to address (rubric requires this for A grade): - Some argue fa’alavelave creates financial hardship and inequality — it can burden lower-income families - Counter: this critique applies a Western individualist framework to a collective system; within the Fonofale model, the aiga network is meant to distribute burden, not concentrate it. The problem is not the practice but its collision with capitalist wage structures in diaspora settings.
Key points: - Lautua (2026): Sāmoan theology positions ancestors not as absent but as ongoing relational presences — “we flourish through harmonious relationships with family, living and deceased” - Le va between the living and dead must be maintained through ritual — fa’alavelave is how this maintenance happens - When these rituals are performed correctly, the community’s relationship with its ancestors is renewed; when they are not, le va is disrupted
Written by: [assign group member]
Christianity did not erase Sāmoan funerary spirituality — it was Oceanianized, absorbed into existing frameworks of aiga, agaga, and Pulotu. The result is a vibrant syncretism where a funeral mass and a fine mat exchange coexist not as contradiction but as complementary expressions of a single relational cosmology.
Key points: - London Missionary Society arrives in Sāmoa approximately 1830 - Sāmoa converts rapidly — but this was not passive acceptance. Sāmoans interpreted Christianity through the fa’asamoa (Sāmoan way) - Traditional belief: the soul (agaga) travels to Pulotu — a layered underworld/afterlife. Chiefs’ souls (aitu) may become protective spirits. Commoners’ souls have different fates. - Christianity introduced Heaven and Hell, but Pulotu persists in folk belief and language
Source: Zurlo (2021), “A Demographic Profile of Christianity in Oceania,” in Christianity in Oceania (Week 2) — provides statistical/historical context: Oceania is now one of the most Christian regions in the world, yet Indigenous practices persist
Key points: - A typical contemporary Sāmoan funeral: opens with Christian prayer and scripture; the body is prepared with suamoli; a funeral mass is held; this is followed by fa’alavelave exchanges of ie toga, food, and money - These are not separate events — they flow into each other - The pastor (faifeau) is a figure of enormous authority in Sāmoan society — yet they preside alongside the matai (chief/orator), not instead of them - JSTOR source your group flagged (https://www.jstor.org/stable/44012059): “Burial traditions, and examines what has changed due to Christian conversion” — use to document specific changes (e.g., pre-Christian burial practices inside the home vs. church cemetery burial) while noting what has persisted
Primary source: Tahaafe-Williams, Katalina, “Christianity in Oceania,” in Christianity in Oceania, Edinburgh University Press, 2021, pp. 19-24 (Week 2)
Key points: - Tahaafe-Williams argues that Christianity in the Pacific is never purely “Western” — it has been transformed by the cultures that adopted it - Pacific Christianity emphasizes community, family, and relational spirituality over Western individualism - The Sāmoan church (lotu) is organized around families and villages — it REINFORCES aiga structure rather than replacing it
Quote direction: Tahaafe-Williams, p. 19-24 — use to argue that the persistence of fa’alavelave within Christian funerals is not inconsistency but a Pacific theological achievement.
Primary source: Upolu Lumā Vaai, “The Ecorelational Story of the Cosmic Aiga: A Pasifika Perspective,” in An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the “Anthropocene” (Week 2), pp. 225-240
Key points: - Vaai argues that Pasifika cosmology understands all creation as aiga (relational family) — including the divine - In this framework, God/the divine is not an external authority but a relational presence within the family network - Christianity’s God is not replacing Sāmoan ancestors — God is absorbed into the aiga cosmology as a supreme ancestor/relational being - Apply to funerary practice: Praying to God at a funeral and maintaining the relational le va with deceased ancestors are not contradictions — they are the same act expressed in two registers
Return to thesis. Synthesize: 1. The Fonofale model shows us that Sāmoan health is inherently relational and communal — and fa’alavelave is its expression in death 2. Suamoli is not cosmetic — it is an ontological act, connecting bodies to genealogies, the living to the dead 3. The structure of the funerary system heals the living by giving grief a form, a community, and a purpose 4. Christianity did not replace this — it was absorbed into it, demonstrating the resilience of fa’asamoa
Closing line suggestion: The suamoli pressed onto a body lying in state in Apia, the ie toga laid on a casket in Auckland, the lauga spoken by a tulāfale before a funeral mass — these are not survivals of an older world. They are Sāmoa, still standing, still walking, still speaking.
Structure: 1. Positionality (30 sec) — Each group member briefly states who they are and their relationship to this topic (non-Sāmoan outsiders; Harvard students; visited Peabody). Be honest: “We approached this as learners, not experts.” 2. The practice (90 sec) — What is fa’alavelave? What is suamoli? Use visuals (images of fine mats, coconut oil, funeral gathering photos where available) 3. Why it matters (60 sec) — Connect to wellbeing. “Pacific grief is communal, spiritual and ongoing” (PMN). Show Fonofale diagram. 4. Christianity & today (30 sec) — Quick visual of a Sāmoan church funeral + traditional exchange happening simultaneously 5. Peabody reflection (30 sec) — Photo of a Pacific object in the Peabody + reflection: “This mat was made for exchange, not display.”
Rubric note: The rubric specifically grades the video on: clear purpose and focus, effective use of colour/fonts/text/visuals that ENHANCE the report. Make it feel like a companion to the paper, not a summary of it.