Nanai | Māngere, Auckland

“So, I’m very proud of my Samoan culture, heritage, to have done my tatau. It’s a Samoan traditional male tattoo. I got this last year, and it’s kind of like a right of passage in our Samoan culture to learn more about my culture by getting the tattoo, and going through it was very, very hard.

As you can see, it starts all the way from up here, all the way down to the knees. So, it was very, very painful. It’s almost a year now since I got it, and I’m  very proud to have gotten it, it was a very, very hard journey. Very painful. As soon as the tattooist started with the first tic, I was thinking to myself, what the hell have you gotten yourself into, but you know, you persevere, and keep the pain in mind, and struggle right through it right up until the end. But I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of my family, who were there the whole time.

Unlike most cultures that I know of, a lot of the cultures have been lost through time. It’s very important to me to get this, because as I was journeying through it, in my mind I was thinking back to all the important things in my life, growing up as a young Samoan even here in New Zealand, that journey really brings back all the memories from my elders, my grandparents to my parents, even up until now. All the cultural things that were really important to me. Even today, when I was seeing my son on his first day of school, I was quite happy, because I was asked to do a speech on behalf of my son’s class and all the parents. So, it really touched back to that. I had to do a speech in Samoan, and of course in English on behalf of the rest of the parents, and as I was talking, I thought about that journey that I went through, and it really brought the words out of my mouth because I thought of my pe’a.

I was born and raised in Samoa, and I moved to New Zealand for good. I came over in 2000 for university and then we moved here in 2004 for good, and have been here since. Of course we go back to Samoa a few times a year, but we moved here, and it’s a great opportunity for my kids, and for my family. These opportunities, you don’t find them back home in Samoa. Of course, Samoa is a developing country, so when I’m here in New Zealand, and I look at everything that we have here, great schools, great healthcare, it’s important that we don’t take advantage of those things, that we don’t take it for granted. It’s very important, being here in such a beautiful country, and the fact that it’s nice and cool. It’s not as hot as back home.”