Safune
Safune | |
---|---|
Village district | |
Gagaifomauga | |
Population (2006) | |
• Total | 786 |
Time zone | -11 |
Includes villages; Matavai, Faletagaloa, Fatuvalu |
Safune is a traditional village district on the central north coast of
The villages within Safune are Matavai, Faletagaloa and Fatuvalu as well as smaller traditional land boundaries, Faleolo and Lalomati.
Olaf Frederick Nelson
Olaf Frederick Nelson, a leader of the
Samoa mythology
In Samoan mythology, the fresh spring pool Mata o le Alelo, in the village of Matavai in Safune is associated with the Polynesian legend of Sina and the 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.[2]
Another story relates that Fune and Fotu were the children of Lafai. Fune founded Safune and Fotu founded Safotu. Both villages were warlike. People from Safune had a war with the people of Faleata and many people were killed.[3]
London Missionary Society
The
The making of a film in Safune
Frederick O'Brien (1869 - 1932),[7] 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 for his film.[8] O'Brien's first travel book White Shadows in the South Seas (1919) had created a lot of public interest in the South Pacific among Americans.
When the Flahertys arrived in Safune they stayed in a house that was a former
Flaherty made the film in Safune with the approval of the chiefs (
Sixteen tonnes of film equipment arrived in the village. A cave in the village was converted into a film processing laboratory and two young men, Samuelo and Imo, from the village, were trained to work there. Flaherty exposed about 240,000 feet of negative on the Safune family, a large amount of footage 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 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
In the evenings, Flaherty screened movies in the village. These included Der Golem (1915 horror) and Paramount movies Miracle Man 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 to radio help from the capital Apia on Upolu island. From the village of Tufu, Flaherty was carried on a litter to the village of Falealupo, where he was cared for by his wife and two Europeans living there, Newton Rowe and a Catholic missionary, 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 bond with the people of the village.
Other notable people
- matai and politician representing Gagaifomauga No. 2 electoral constituency. Current Minister of Communication and Technology in the Parliament of Samoa.
References
- ^ Albert Wendt (1965). Guardians and Wards: A study of the origins, causes and the first two years of the Mau in Western Samoa. Victoria University of Wellington. p. 98. Retrieved 3 September 2022 – via NZETC.
- ^ Asofou Soʻo (2008). Democracy and custom in Sāmoa: an uneasy alliance. Suva: University of the South Pacific. p. 3.
- ^ Siaosi Tana (1962). O Samoa Anamua. WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED. p. 198. Retrieved 3 September 2022 – via NZETC.
- ^ Lovett, Richard (1899). The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895. London : Henry Frowde.
- ^ Sissy Helff (2009). Transcultural English Studies: Theories, Fictions, Realities. Rodopi. p. 211.
- ^ a b "Moana and the Pacific: Chapter 2". Archived from the original on 13 May 2011.
- ^ Atolls of the sun. Hodder and Stoughton. 1922.
- ^ Jeffrey Geiger (2007). Facing the Pacific: Polynesia and the U.S. imperial imagination. University of Hawaiʻi Press. p. 75.
- ^ Yae-Wei Wang. "Moana : A Romance of the Golden Age -- The Love-Hate Relationship between Robert Flaherty, Hollywood, and Samoa". Archived from the original on 9 October 2011.