Mak Sa'moa is an informal Rotuman dance

Dance of Rotuma

Dance in Rotuma refers to the traditional and modern dance styles performed by the people of the island of Rotuma, which became a dependency of Fiji in 1881...

 form derived from Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

n movement styles (Mak Sa'moa meaning "Samoan Dance" in Rotuman

Rotuman language

Rotuman, also referred to as Rotunan, Rutuman or Fäeag Rotuma, is an Austronesian language spoken by the indigenous people of the South Pacific island group of Rotuma, an island with a Polynesian-influenced culture that was incorporated as a dependency into the Colony of Fiji in 1881...

), including the style of hand movements between man and woman, and the shuffling/twisting of the feet in and out, as in the Siva Samoa

Siva Samoa

Siva Samoa is the Samoan term for a Samoan dance.Traditional Samoan dancing is one area of the culture that has been the least affected bywestern civilisation...

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Although considered a traditional Rotuman dance style, and having been used informally for some time, it wasn't until recent contact with Samoans

Samoans

The Samoan people are a Polynesian ethnic group of the Samoan Islands, sharing genetics, language, history and culture. Due to colonialism, the home islands are politically and geographically divided between the country of Samoa, official name Independent State of Samoa ; and American Samoa, an...

 (such as missionaries for the London Missionary Society

London Missionary Society

The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...

 or the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma

Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma

The Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma is the largest Christian denomination in Fiji, with 36.2 percent of the total population at the 1996 census...

) that Rotumans realised the art form was in fact borrowed from early Samoan ancestors, such as Raho, to whom Rotumans attribute as the "founders" of the islands.

Mak Sa'moa is generally nowadays more popular amongst older generations of Rotuman people, who appreciate it's varying but generally slower pace, and the style of music and lyric as being more Rotuman than the popular Mak Rarotoga whose borrowed tunes emulate the fastpaced Tahiti

Tahiti

Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...

an and Rarotonga

Rarotonga

Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14,153 , out of the country's total population of 19,569.The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga...

n dances of otea and tamure

Tamure

The tāmūrē, or Tamouré as popularized in many 1960s recordings, is a dance from Tahiti and the Cook Islands and although denied by the local purists, for the rest of the world it is the most popular dance and the mark of Tahiti...

, and are commonly danced at the Rotuman festivity of the av' mane'a season, the Rotuman fara

Fara (Rotuman festivity)

Fara is a traditional Rotuman cultural and social event, occurring in the summertime festival of “av’ manea” where groups of singers and dancers traverse from house to house in a prescribed area to perform and entertain their hosts, “asking”, as the name suggests, for their hospitality and...

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