By Talaia Mika
APIA, SAMOA – 08 JUNE 2022: Manono Island residents have revived the iconic Fautasi – long boats regatta that have become synonymous with the national Independence and Teuila festival celebrations.
The island residents are among the country’s best oarsmen and oarswomen as rowing had been part of their daily way of life to travel to and from the main islands. Manono Island ended its four-day celebrations of Samoa’s 60 years of Independence last week with a Fautasi exhibition race on Saturday 4 June 2022.
But in the advent of the outboard motors and the three year lockdown, fautasi racing had been a dying event and the massive 30 plus oars long boats had deteriorated over the years. So when the island residents prepared for last weeks’ race, it was unfortunate that one of the two remaining fautasi leaked the night before.
Since the very first Independence regatta in 1962, the well-known Manono island fautasi, the Telefoni o le Vainu’u had been a feature of Samoa’s fautasi regatta history.
This is other than the smaller version of the longboat, the Tulula, which is more a utility sea vehicle rowed by women.
So last Saturday, the Manono Islands pride, the Telefoni o le Vainuu was on an exhibition race with two Tululas rowed by women. The CCCS church minister, Reverend Ieremia Saufo’i told Talamua, the spirit was to celebrate Samoa’s 60th years of independence.
With rowing a part of their daily lives, Manono residents are the among country’s best oarsmen and oarswomen.
After the exhibition race around the island, the fautasi paddled along the shores of Manono-Uta to wish them a happy independence.
Two denominations on the island, the Methodist Church and the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa were the main ones involved in organising the celebration.
CCCS church minister, Reverend Ieremia Saufo’i told Talamua the difficulty with the other fautasi did not dampen the residents’ spirit to commemorate Samoa’s 60th independence.
“This is also a good chance for us to prepare and start training for the national fautasi race in September for the Teuila festival so we’re really excited,” he added.
“For today itself it’s really special, we’ve been locked in our homes for three years due to the pandemic however, it’s really that things are slowly going back to normal and we’ll be waiting for September and looking forward to the whole year of Samoa celebrating its’ independence.”
The Telefoni o le Vainu’u is the only longboat to have publicly confirmed its participation in the upcoming Teuila Festival fautasi regatta.