Samoa Stands Still For National Funeral At Apia Park

Today will be a national day of mourning as Samoa comes to a standstill at 3pm, Thursday Samoa time, for the national funeral  in honour of the tsunami victims. Its location has been shifted from the Methodist Church at Apia Park. This will be followed by a mass burial at Tafaigata although reports are suggesting only a handful of families have consented to having their loved ones buried in a mass grave.  Many families have already buried their loved ones. For one, it was simply impractical to wait a week in Samoa’s heat with funeral parlour and morgues filled to overwhelming.

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The New Zealand Herald are reporting that only ten of the more than 100 dead will be interred at Tafaigata. If that number is correct, then it confirms what we had also been hearing from locals and their families who did not want, for obvious reasons to other Samoans, to have their dead buried there.  Their funeral costs will be covered by the Government. It’s not known, however, if Government will cover the cost of coffins for those who refused to consent to the mass burial.

A number of reasons can be offered for the reluctance  of  Samoan villagers to take up the government’s offer.  First, many of the bodies would have been badly decomposed. In the heat of Samoa, it’s simply unbearable to wait a whole week, particularly in situations where a body has been found, decomposed, and those living have no a car to take the body to the morgue, let alone a telephone to ring out. That’s the reality for the poorest villagers in the outbacks in Aleipata district which is the South Coast of Upolu.

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Secondly, and I think this cannot be underestimated, but those who have lost loved ones, and saw bodies swirling in the tsunami waves, it would retraumatise them to expect them to wait a whole week for their loved ones to be buried. That is compounded with their need to find food, shelter and clothing, and from all reports, it’s subsistence living right now for the affected villages. For many, if not all, waiting a week to bury a loved one whose body is severely injured and fast decomposing is an unbearable burden to place on already grief-stricken families. In many cases, those bodies will be unrecognisable or so severely injured that it is too upsetting for families to allow their loved ones to stay above ground for this long.

Thirdly, traditionally in Samoa, loved ones are buried on their land usually right outside the front of the house, or not far from it, in the village. The living remain close to the dead and tend to their graves and keep them on family land. Those graves are the markers of family land. The government’s land of Tafaigata, where the mass burial will take place, is a long way for the villagers.It’s not like they’ll be able to walk out the door and visit their grave.

Fourth, I was told that the last time there was a mass burial of Samoans was in the 1928 Spanish Influenza epidemic that wiped out 22 percent of the Samoan population, killing more than 8000. That mass grave happens to be close to where this new mass grave will be. That might be too close for comfort given the painful memories that have passed from generation to generations of Samoans about what happened back then to the bodies. This mass burial is another painful reminder of that period. They already feel enough pain with the tsunami alone.

Fifth, Tafaigata, where the bodies will be buried, is not far from the prison. That’s not an appealing thought is it? One could say, who would want their loved ones near a prison. I’m being honest here.

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To be fair to the Government, it’s hard to see that they had any other choice since Tafaigata is government land so it makes logistical sense.  Also, it could be seen as effort to move villagers away from the coastline and to safer inland areas. One way to encourage that is to make sure families don’t bury their dead on their land or near the villages that have been destroyed by the tsunami.

Government have also said they will erect a memorial at Tafaigata inscribed with the names of all those who have died. They have offered to pay for the coffins of all those who are buried today in the mass grave.  I don’t think any government would wish to be in the position that Samoa finds itself in. The challenge for its government leaders is going to be a tough one in how it communicates its messages to the people in this highly stressed and traumatised environment post-tsunami. God Bless Samoa.