Samoan Mythology
This website is designed to restore, preserve, and especially share the illustrations drawn in the early 1980’s by Dorothy Kneubuhl, known as “Dotsy” or just “Tasi.” She and her husband John Kneubuhl, who lived in American Samoa, worked alongside many other persons and scholars of distinction in the Bilingual Bicultural Program of the American Samoa Department of Education. They produced three volumes they called “readers” to be used to restore teaching the Samoan language in the schools. These are titled Lafai, Talitonuga Anamua and Sina and Tigilao. In particular, John feared the loss by Samoan youth of their Samoan cultural literacy and language, as the island’s social structures and norms faced increasingly intense pressures of displacement, diversification and assimilation. Dotsy illustrated three volumes; each illustration is accompanied by text, whether a translation, a summary or a simple comment. The text borrows heavily from the work of Brother Fred Henry whose volume, Lafai, (History of Samoa) was reproduced in 1979 at the National University of Samoa in tribute to K.R. Lambie with an extended gathering of talented and gifted linguists. Please see our full acknowledgements here.
Sina & Tigilau
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more
There was a woman named Magamagai who was so distressed that she could do nothing but stare all day at the Sun. One day she became very heavy since she became pregnant from staring at the Sun. She bore a son and gave him the name Alo o le Lᾱ ( Child of the Sun)… more