Thanks to a combination of research initiatives and community service, the staff and students of the Samoan Studies Institute (SSI) at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) recently published two books created with the Samoan speaking audience in mind. As SSI Director Okenaisa Fauolo-Manila explained, "We hope these two new books will reach all Samoans who have an interest in Tutuila 's oral histories, and also in Samoan medicine, healers and alternative medicine. Both publications also include translations to help people with limited Samoan speaking skills."

The first publication, Ua tala le ta'ui , collects myths and legends of Tutuila from the western villages of the Alataua district. The SSI staff collected 15 stories initially written down in Samoan by Teleiai Ausage and subsequently translated into English by Tafito Aitaoto. The book identifies proverbial expressions (alagaupu) from the stories, explains their meanings, and gives examples of the application of these words of wisdom. Each story has a Samoan glossary to help readers with the meaning of any words they find unfamiliar. The SSI hopes to follow this publication with further volumes covering other districts of Tutuila .

To create Ua tala le ta'ui , SSI researchers went out to the community, collected stories, put these in written form, and then gave copies to the initial storytellers for their approval before editing and publishing the final text. "We relied on the elders and knowledgeable matai of the villages as our main contributors," recalled Fauolo-Manila. Fauolo said the SSI plans to use Ua tala le ta'ui as a textbook its courses, especially the ones which focus on writing, such as SAM 151 (Freshman Composition), SAM 204 (Samoan Mythology), SAM 251 (Sophomore Composition), and SAM 291 (Samoan Translation).

The second book, O le uta a le taulasea Samoa , compiles students' research conducted for SSI courses SAM 204, SAM 251, SAM 111(ASTEP). The students used Service Learning pedagogy to carry out research on Samoa 's traditional healing and medicine. The SSI funded O le uta a le taulasea Samoa through a Memorandum of Understanding with the American Samoa Community Cancer Network, an agreement which mandates that SSI create publications to raise awareness of medical issues within the context of Samoan culture. Students who worked on O le uta a le taulasea Samoa first learned research skills from instructor Tamari Mulitalo-Cheung, which enabled them to apply a Service Learning approach to collect the information the SSI later edited and published. The resulting publication gives credit to all contributors, except in some cases where taulasea specifically requested they not be named or photographed because of their belief that their medicines carry spiritual taboos.

"Traditional Samoan culture had its own unique approach to healing, which we wish to help preserve," said Fauolo-Manila. "While we do not say that people should substitute traditional healing for modern medicine, we think the two can co-exist, once we have a better understanding of how traditional methods can safely provide the results we seek." The SSI plans to give out copies of O le uta a le taulasea Samoa when it goes to villages to conduct outreach programs.

Discussing the challenges faced by the SSI staff in creating these two publications, Fauolo-Manila recalled. "First and foremost, we took great care to stay true to the SSI mission statement, which is to perpetuate the faasamoa . With this in mind, we feel that both publications should provide a resource for the community, especially the storytellers and healers who contributed. In the editing stages, we had to struggle a bit to make sure that the voices of both the contributors as well as the student researchers came through. Finally, we made the decision to keep away from village salutations and stories associated with these, because we recognize that these are sacred knowledge and SSI does not wish to overstep that boundary."

 Although community contributors and students have received most copies of the first run of the two publications, the SSI still has some copies available for purchase. "We did not set out to make a profit out of this project, just enough to cover printing costs for future re-printing," said Fauolo-Manila. For more information on these publications, phone ASCC at 699-9155 and ask for the Samoan Studies Institute.