Samoan Girls Practicising Dance Routine

These Samoan girls were practising their steps for their upcoming performance at Pacifika when I caught them with my camera.

Their smiles were so sweet that I decided to turn the plumeria and hibiscus flowers behind their ears into a shower of blessings.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 55mm
1/200 secs at f/20
ISO 200

Samoan Kids Pasifika 2007

I didn't even have to ask this group of Samoan kids to pose. Once they saw my camera they bunched together and gleefully posed for me.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 105mm
1/40 secs at f/25
ISO 400

Pike Place Market Seattle

A trip to Seattle isn't complete without a visit to Pike Place Market. Here all sorts of fresh produce and flowers are peddled with vim and vigor, but none more so than the fish retailers who cry out inviting you to make a purchase, and then play football with the fish you select. Somehow the guys manage not to drop the slippery fish as the guy at the front throws it the the guy at the back who wraps it up for you.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 27mm
1/160 secs at f/4
ISO 400

Indian Chant to Discovery Bay Salmon

On the first evening of my recent stay at Beckett Point on Discovery Bay near Puget Sound, the silence was suddenly broken by the banging of a drum and the sound of native American Indian chant. The sound came from two women further up the beach. In talking to them subsequently they told us that they were chanting to the salmon in the bay. As it turned out, the salmon are running at this time of year, and when we first arrived the water just a little off shore was alive with salmon jumping in the water. The ceremony performed by the women only added to the mystical nature of the evening as the sun set.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
1/50 secs at f/10
ISO 800

Samoan Youth

This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year.

Canon EOS 20D
1/30sec at f/20
ISO 200
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm

Faafafine Performing at Pasifika Festival 2007

The Samoan "village" at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland in March 2007 was by far the biggest of them all. No wonder, since the Samoan community is the largest non-indigenous Polynesian community in Auckland. (The Pasifika Festival, by the way, features the Polynesian races of the south Pacific island, and does not include the Polynesian natives of New Zealand, the Maoris.

As mentioned in the previous post, Fa'afafine at the Pasifika Festival 2007, fa'afafine are cross-dressing Samoan males. They took the stage at the Samoan village before a very large crowd. This photo is of one of the fa'afafine performing with her group.

Faafafine at the Pasifika Festival 2007

Fa'afafine (fah-fa-fee-neh) is a Samoan word that translates literally as "like a woman" and describes males who identify as female.

I can't find much information on fa'afafine on the web at all, but Wikipedia's entry on fa'afafine states: "Fa'afafine fall in the general and vague category called transgender...They are often sexually attracted to non-transgender men, although some decide to marry heterosexually"

A link from Wikipedia to Radio ABC Australia has a rather idealized 2005 piece on fa'afafine (Samoan boys brought up as girls)

A paucity of information on the web about fa'afafine is made up for by the ubiquity of fa'afafine in New Zealand (and I presume Samoa) whenever groups of Samoans gather for fun. I have been at barbecues in New Zealand that have evolved into impromptu shows of fa'afafine entertaining the guests with antics consisting of a combination of traditional dance and "camp" to the delight of the guests.

The Polynesian dance festival "Pasifika" which I had the pleasure of attending in Auckland this past March for the first time featured a group of fa'afafine who performed for the large crowd gathered at the Samoan village. In this photo I caught them hiding behind a tent nervously awaiting their turn on the stage.

Samoan Beauty Queen at Pasifika Festival

Pasifika is an annual Polynesian festival held in Auckland in early March. All the many and varied Polynesian groups gather at Western Springs Park west of downtown Auckland and celebrate their cultures with traditional dancing, entertainment, and food. It is the largest Polynesian festival in the world, which isn't a difficult feat for Auckland which enjoys the largest population of people originating from the South Pacific Islands in addition to the native Maori people of New Zealand. The Maori name for New Zealand, by the way, is Aotearoa.

This photo is of a contestant in the Samoan beauty contest. And quite a beauty she is too.

You are invited to share your impressions of this and any of my photos by posting a comment below. I appreciate your feedback.

Black and White Photo of Maori Carving of the Head of Christ

Head of Christ Maori Carving in Black and White

I thought this photo of the head of Christ carved into the front of the altar at St. Joseph's Church in Jerusalem on the Wanganui River would look good in black and white because of the linear qualities presented in the carving of the face tattoos.

Go here for the color version of this photo of the Maori carving of Christ's face and for more information on the village of Jerusalem.

Maori Carving of the Head of Christ

Altar Frontispiece Featuring Maori Carving of Christ Crownded with Thorns


This carving of the head of Christ is the center piece of the altar frontispiece in St. Joseph's Catholic church at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River in New Zealand. (See my photo of the Whanganui River) Christ is represented in traditional Maori fashion with face tattoos (ta moko) and a crown of thorns. Paua (abalone) shell is used to decorate the carving.

The small village of Jerusalem has figured large in the post-European history of New Zealand. It was here in 1907 a diminutive French woman, Suzanne Aubert, founded the order of the Sisters of Compassion. And it the 60s it was home to a florishing hippy commune lead by the poet James K. Baxter.

Here is a photo of the entire carving that makes up the frontispiece of the altar at the church in Jerusalem.