Ta'iala mo le Gagana Sāmoa - Pasifika Education Community

Vāega 1: ‘O ni fa‘ata‘ita‘iga i le aganu‘u fa‘asāmoaLevel 1: Suggested aspects of fa‘asāmoaFamilies provide their children with a set of beliefs, behaviours, and cultural understandings.Students bring to their learning diverse cultural values based on their family backgrounds and lifeexperiences. In school settings, connections need to be made between the diverse cultural experiencesof students and the cultural values and practices of aganu‘u fa‘asāmoa. The experiences of somestudents will include aspects of traditional practices, such as weddings or cooking food, as well asaspects of contemporary influences.The table below suggests possible aspects of aganu'u fa'asāmoa for the Cultural Knowledge strandat level 1.Atamai i le Aganu‘uCultural KnowledgeStudents will:‘O ni fa‘ata‘ita‘iga i le aganu‘u fa‘asāmoaSuggested aspects of fa‘asāmoaStudents could be learning through experiences that allow them to:52• position themselves appropriatelywhen relating to others;• recognise and express fa‘aaloalo in avariety of contexts;• respond to and use gagana Sāmoatexts;• participate in a simple culturalperformance;• make connections with knownculture(s).• take the appropriate position (with head bowed, eyes down, andcrouching) when speaking to a teacher or elder and say, “Tuloulava lau susuga”;• walk behind an older person (savali i tua);• sit down before talking to an adult (nofo i lalo pe‘ā tautala i ai);• use classroom greetings such as Tālofa lau susuga i le faiā‘oga;• thank an adult, for example, by saying Fa‘afetai i lau susuga …;• practise waiting for everyone, especially parents and elders,before eating;• attend to the grace said to bless the food before eating;• help with meal-related chores, such as getting the bowl andtowel for hand washing;• offer visitors hospitality;• engage with texts in gagana Sāmoa that include songs, poems,myths, and legends;• discuss news, for example, on television and radio and innewspapers;• perform, for example, in school Polynesian festivals and comedyshows such as faleaitu;• read journals, for example, Fōlauga;• sing hymns, such as “Fa‘afetai i le Atua”, and songs, such as“Ie Lavalava Teuteu Fa‘asāmoa”;• tell myths and legends, for example, about Sina and the Eel, Aloand the Tanifa, or ‘Apa‘ula and Vaea;• take part in sāsā and siva;• take part in simple cultural practices, for example, greeting andthanking people;• compare the fa‘asāmoa way of preparing an umu with foodpreparation practices in other cultures;• compare fa‘asāmoa counting systems with those of othercultures.