"Chief Luteru" the owner and CEO of Islanders Luau, officially became a Matai, or Chief, in 2006, in his grandfather's small village of Tufutafoe, Savaii, Samoa, with the traditional Saofa'i Ava Ceremony. (Ava is the Samoan word for Kava, which is Tongan and is much more commonly used.) The official title given to Maril by the village elders, is “Chief Afualo Luteru”.

Read the captions accompanying the below pictures for details of this incredible experience in Maril's life.

The village chiefs

The village of Tufutafoe was where Maril's grandfather was born in 1905. All of the people in the village are Afualos. These are some of the distant relatives that serve on the village council who were invited inside the fale, for the ceremony. They were completely comfortable sitting cross-legged on the mats for the lengthy ceremony.

Uncle Nesi

Susiana’s Uncle Nesi has lived in the tiny village of Tufutafoe, Samoa, his whole life. Nesi is one of the village high chiefs. He looks just like Maril's Uncle Sone, who used to be the base player for the Islanders band in the 1970's and 80's.

The 'Ava Stick

The taulealea presents Maril with his kava stick. Each chief or matai of the village is presented with the prospective chief’s kava stick during the ceremony. 

The kava bowl

The Tufutafoe village kava bowl was much simpler than the fancy kava bowls which are sold to tourists at the market in Apia, Samoa.

This boy, a tualealea, is scooping the kava drink out with a coconut shell for each of the village elders to take a sip. The rest of the village sat around the outside of the Fale tele, to respectfully observe the lengthy ceremony.

Chief Afualo Luteru

The ceremony was a meaningful, humbling experience for Maril as he became one of the village chiefs. 

Once in a lifetime

After the Kava stick was presented to Maril, a tea was made of the kava and each of the chief's took a sip of it from a coconut shell. Susiana was sitting next to her son, Maril, proud that he would now represent her family here in California.

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We were amazed by how coconuts are used for just about every dish of food in Samoa. Coconut trees sprout everywhere, without being in the soil.  Trees are growing everywhere and they are loaded with about 50 coconuts per tree, which is quite dangerous if you happen to be standing under a tall tree at the wrong time.  Our 4 year old grandson had a coconut fall less than a foot from his head when he was playing at a park.  A coconut in its husk is bigger than a child's head and quite heavy! 

Coconuts are so plentiful in Samoa, that every day you find them on streets, floating in the ocean,  on the beaches, and sprouting along all the hiking trails.  They sprout and start growing into a tree without even being buried.  They will sprout and then a root will travel down to the ground and start a new tree.  

When hiking we had run out of water, so we found a thick stick, stuck it in the sand and used it to pry off the husk of a coconut.  Then we took a rock and broke it open, which is easy to do if you know where to hit it. Then we drank the coconut water inside, which tastes an awful lot like Sprite.  Seriously.  

The Samoans don't usually eat the coconut meat--they feed that to the animals--but they use coconut cream in just about everything.  They can quickly husk a coconut, and then use a scraper attached to a wooden horse (see picture) to scrape the white meat into a bowl.  Then they set the meat into the coconut husk, and squeeze all of the coconut milk out of the flaked meat into the bowl.  

The coconut milk is used to make koko rice for breakfast, and it is used as a fat substitute in many recipes.  When they add a little salt and onion to it, it makes a wonderfully rich sauce on top of native vegetables, starches, and meats.  Coconut milk is used in just about every traditional dessert, bakery item, main dish, and side dish in Samoa.

If you are wondering what the third picture above is, it is a niu, or a young coconut.  The middle part tastes a lot like cotton candy, believe it or not, and kids love it.