Safune is a traditional village district on the central north coast of Savai'i

Savai'i

Savaii is the largest and highest island in Samoa and the Samoa Islands chain. It is also the biggest landmass in Polynesia outside Hawaii and New Zealand. The island of Savai'i is also referred to by Samoans as Salafai, a classical Samoan term used in oratory and prose...

 island in 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...

. It lies within the electoral constituency of Gaga'ifomauga

Gaga'ifomauga

Gaga'ifomauga is a political district on the island of Savai'i in Samoa. The district is situated on the northern side of the island with a population of 4,770 ....

. Safune is the birthplace of Mau

Mau movement

The Mau was a non-violent movement for Samoan independence from colonial rule during the early 1900s. The word 'Mau' means 'opinion' or 'testimony' denoting 'firm strength' in Samoan...

 leader Olaf Frederick Nelson

Olaf Frederick Nelson

Taisi Olaf Frederick Nelson, , also known as Taisi Olaf, was a successful businessman and one of the founding leaders of the Mau movement for Samoan independence from colonial rule....

 and the filming location of Moana

Moana

Moana is a documentary film, the first docufiction in the history of cinema, directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the creator of Nanook of the North . Moana was filmed in Samoa in the villages of Safune on the island of Savai'i...

 (1926 film), one of the first documentaries made in the world. The Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo is a village pool in Samoa associated with the Polynesian legend Sina and the Eel.Mata o le Alelo is in the small village of Matavai, in the village district Safune on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa....

 pool associated with the Sina and the Eel

Sina and the Eel

Sina and the Eel is a myth of origins in Samoan mythology which explains the origins of the first coconut tree.In the Samoan language the legend is called Sina ma le Tuna. Tuna is the Samoan word for 'eel'....

 Polynesian legend is also in Safune.

The villages within Safune are Matavai, Faletagaloa

Faletagaloa

Faletagaloa is a village on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa.The village is in the traditional sub-district of Safune in the Gagaifomauga electoral division.-References:...

 and Fatuvalu as well as smaller traditional land boundaries, Faleolo and Lalomati.

Olaf Frederick Nelson

Olaf Frederick Nelson, a leader of the Mau

Mau movement

The Mau was a non-violent movement for Samoan independence from colonial rule during the early 1900s. The word 'Mau' means 'opinion' or 'testimony' denoting 'firm strength' in Samoan...

, Samoa's independence movement during the colonial

Colonialism

Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

 era in the early 1900s, was born in Safune on 24 February 1883. Nelson's father was a Swedish immigrant trader. His mother Sina Masoe was from Safune. In 1900, at the age of 17, Nelson worked for his father's store in Safune. When his father retired in 1903, Nelson expanded the family business. In 1904, he purchased a boat called 'Lily' to ship copra

Copra

Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...

 to sell in Apia. By 1906 he was shipping directly to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. He set up trading stations on Savai'i and Upolu. Nelson went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Samoa. In 1928, the colonial administration exiled Nelson to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 for his leadership in the Mau movement.

Samoa mythology

In Samoan mythology

Samoan mythology

Samoan mythology tell stories of many different gods. There were gods of the forest, the seas, rain, harvest, villages and war. There were two types of gods, atua who had non-human origins and aitu who were of human origin. Tagaloa was a supreme god who made the islands and the people. Mafui'e was...

, the fresh spring pool Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo is a village pool in Samoa associated with the Polynesian legend Sina and the Eel.Mata o le Alelo is in the small village of Matavai, in the village district Safune on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa....

, in the village of Matavai in Safune is associated with the Polynesian

Polynesian mythology

Polynesian mythology is the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia, a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian triangle together with the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers...

 legend of Sina and the Eel

Sina and the Eel

Sina and the Eel is a myth of origins in Samoan mythology which explains the origins of the first coconut tree.In the Samoan language the legend is called Sina ma le Tuna. Tuna is the Samoan word for 'eel'....

. The pool is looked after by women in the village and is open to visitors and tourists. The legend explains the origins of the first coconut tree.

Pre-history

The name Sa Fune (the family of Fune) is associated with a man called Fune, a warrior who established his court in a number of villages in Savai'i. Fune is believed to have been the first holder of the Le Tagaloa chief title in the 10th century.

Another story relates that Fune and Fotu were the children of Lafai. Fune founded Safune and Fotu founded Safotu

Safotu

Safotu is a village on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa. Safotu is in the district Gagaifomauga. Traditionally, it attained the status of 'Pule,' customary political authority, and has been the main centre of the Gagaifomauga district....

. Both villages were warlike. People from Safune had a war with the people of Faleata and many people were killed.

The making of a film in Safune

Moana

Moana

Moana is a documentary film, the first docufiction in the history of cinema, directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the creator of Nanook of the North . Moana was filmed in Samoa in the villages of Safune on the island of Savai'i...

 (1926), one of the first documentary

Documentary

A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...

 films made in the world, was filmed in Safune and directed by Robert J. Flaherty

Robert J. Flaherty

Robert Joseph Flaherty, F.R.G.S. was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature length documentary film, Nanook of the North...

 who lived in the village for more than a year. Flaherty was in Samoa from April 1923 to December 1924. He went to Samoa with his wife Frances Flaherty, their three young children, a red-haired Irish nursemaid (nicknamed 'Mumu' or 'Red' by the Samoans) and Flaherty's younger brother David Flaherty who would act as the film production manager

Production management

Theatrical production management is a sub-division of stagecraft. The production management team is responsible for realizing the visions of the producer and the director or choreographer within constraints of technical possibility...

. The tropical landscape of Safune was very different from the frozen icy setting of Flaherty's previous film Nanook of the North

Nanook of the North

Nanook of the North is a 1922 silent documentary film by Robert J. Flaherty. In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the Inuk Nanook and his family in the Canadian arctic...

.

Frederick O'Brien (1869 - 1932), a successful travel writer in America in the 1920s (Atolls of the Sun, Mystic Isles of the South Seas) had stayed for several months in Safune and recommended the village to Flaherty as a location

Filming location

A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...

 for his film. O'Brien's first travel book 'White Shadows in the South Seas' (1919) had created a lot of public interest in the South Pacific

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

 among Americans.

When the Flahertys arrived in Safune they stayed in a house that was a former trading post

Trading post

A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

 set among coconut trees. This was the same house in which O'Brien had stayed two years earlier. Their host was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 trader Felix David, who had lived in Samoa for many years. The German had trained as an opera singer in his youth in Europe and provided evening recital

Recital

A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....

s in the village including opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic renditions of Siegfried's death scene from Götterdämmerung

Götterdämmerung

is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...

.

Flaherty made the film in Safune with the approval of the chiefs (matai

Fa'amatai

Fa'amatai is the chiefly system of Samoa, central to the organization of Samoan society.It is the traditional indigenous form of governance in the Samoa Islands, comprising American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa...

), of whom the filmmaker noted as being proud of their home being chosen as the location. The German trader David acted as his go-between with the locals. The villagers called Flaherty 'Ropati' or 'Lopati,' a transliteration

Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 of 'Robert.'

Sixteen tonnes of film equipment arrived in the village. A cave

Cave

A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...

 in the village was converted into a film processing

Photographic processing

Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image...

 laboratory and two young men, Samuelo and Imo, from the village, were trained to work there. Flaherty exposed about 240,000 feet of negative

Photographic film

Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...

 on the Safune family, a large amount of footage

Footage

In filmmaking and video production, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally filmed by movie camera or recorded by a video camera which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work...

 developed and printed by hand in a cave with two Samoan boys who had no prior film training. After a year of filming, a problem showed up in the developed negative, caused by the salinity

Salinity

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...

 content of the water from the pool in the cave laboratory. The problem was fixed by using rainwater, but prior footage had to be filmed again. The whole of the film as it is seen today was shot between July and December in 1924.

Flaherty cast

Cast member

A cast member is:* An actor who performs in a theatrical production, motion picture, or television program. The actors who perform in the show are collectively referred to as the cast....

 village people in the film. 'Moana,' which means 'ocean,' was the name of the lead male character. The role of 'Moana' was played by a local boy Ta'avale. The film showed the young hero getting a pe'a

Pe'a

The Pe'a is the popular name of the traditional male tattoo of Samoa, which was originally called the malofie, a term used in the Samoan language chiefly vocabulary and 'respect' register .-Description:...

, a rite of passage, and the traditional Samoan tattoo for males. The pe'a tattoo (the Samoan word pe'a is also the word for a flying fox

Pteropus

Bats of the genus Pteropus, belonging to the megabat or Megachiroptera sub-order, are the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as the fruit bats or flying foxes among other colloquial names...

 or fruit bat) took six weeks to complete and the master tattooist (Tufuga ta tatau) was from Asau

Asau

Asău is a commune in Bacău County, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Apa Asău, Asău, Ciobănuş, Lunca Asău, Păltiniş and Straja....

. A young boy, whose name was also Pe'a, from Faletagaloa

Faletagaloa

Faletagaloa is a village on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa.The village is in the traditional sub-district of Safune in the Gagaifomauga electoral division.-References:...

 village in Safune, played the role of Moana's younger brother. Young Pe'a grew up and became a chief with the title Taule'ale'ausumai. A village girl Fa'agase, from Lefagaoali'i

Lefagaoali'i

Lefagaoali'i is a village on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa. The village is in the electoral district of Gagaifomauga.The settlement is situated on a thin spit of land with the ocean on the north side and an inland lake with mangroves on the south side which flows out to the...

 village, played the lead female role and love interest. The film also showed the traditional process of making 'siapo' or tapa

Tapa cloth

Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...

, an organic material of bark cloth. The old woman making 'tapa' in the film was Tu'ugaita of the Pa'ia'aua family in Matavai village, where the Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo is a village pool in Samoa associated with the Polynesian legend Sina and the Eel.Mata o le Alelo is in the small village of Matavai, in the village district Safune on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa....

 pool is situated.

In the evenings, Flaherty screened

Projection screen

A projection screen is an installation consisting of a surface and a support structure used for displaying a projected image for the view of an audience. Projection screens may be permanently installed, as in a movie theater; painted on the wall; or semi-permanent or mobile, as in a conference room...

 movies in the village. These included Der Golem (1915 horror) and Paramount movies Miracle Man

The Miracle Man (1919 film)

The Miracle Man is a 1919 dramatic film based on a 1914 play by George M. Cohan, which in turn is based on the novel of the same title by Frank L. Packard. It was directed by George Loane Tucker and stars Thomas Meighan, Betty Compson, and Lon Chaney...

 and It Pays to Advertise (1919). One time during filming, Flaherty became sick while he was at Tufu, a small village at the west end of Savai'i island. A messenger was sent to the village of Fagamalo

Fagamalo

Fagamalo is a village situated on the central north coast of Savai'i in Samoa. It is a sub-village or pito nu'u of the larger traditional village enclave of Matautu in the political district of Gaga'emauga....

 to radio help from the capital Apia on Upolu

Upolu

Upolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is long, in area, and is the second largest in geographic area as well as the most populated of the Samoan Islands. Upolu is situated to the east of...

 island. From the village of Tufu, Flaherty was carried on a litter to the village of Falealupo

Falealupo

Falealupo is a village in Samoa situated at the west end of Savai'i island from the dateline. The village has two main settlements, Falealupo-Uta, situated inland by the main island highway and Falealupo-Tai, situated by the sea...

, where he was cared for by his wife and two Europeans living there, Newton Rowe and a Catholic missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

, Father Haller. Five days later, a boat with a doctor from Upolu arrived at Falealupo. Flaherty and his wife were taken to Upolu where the filmmaker recovered before returning to Safune.

By the time Flaherty and his family departed Safune, they had formed a close kinship

Kinship

Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....

 bond with the people of the village.

Other notable people

• Safuneitu'uga Pa'aga Neri
  Safuneitu'uga Pa'aga Neri
  Safuneitu'uga Pa'aga Neri is a Samoan matai, politician and the current Minister of Communication and Technology in Samoa. Her matai chief title is Safuneitu'uga....
  
  , matai
  Fa'amatai
  Fa'amatai is the chiefly system of Samoa, central to the organization of Samoan society.It is the traditional indigenous form of governance in the Samoa Islands, comprising American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa...
  
   and politician representing Gagaifomauga No. 2 electoral constituency. Current Minister of Communication and Technology in the Parliament of Samoa.

External links

• Robert J. Flaherty, a Biography by Paul Rotha, edited by Jay Ruby