‘SAUNIATU, A PLACE TO SERVE AND GO FORTH’
By: Asenati Taugasolo Semu
The village of Sauniatu is about 20 miles East of Apia, and about four miles from the coast.
It’s always considered by many as an isolated place since its establishment in 1904.
The word Sauniatu means in English, ‘a place to prepare’, and is a village or area of 800 acres of land that belongs to the Latter Day Saints Church (LDS).
The Sauniatu village comprise a LDS primary school and a waterfall which was visited by the local media last month.
The Administrator of Sauniatu Primary School, Rubina Aiono gave a brief history of how this village was established by the LDS church.
“Sauniatu is a village of refuge and safe place, it’s a place to serve and go forth,” said Aiono.
“When people in Samoa accepted the gospel and became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, a lot of them were prosecuted and a lot of them were sent away by their families, and they had to look for somewhere to go, and so they asked the leaders of the Church at that time for assistance.
“This village was actually built in 1904. It wasn’t an easy task for members of the Church at that time. And as the years go by, the future of the village was always in question because the Church has spent a lot of money trying to build this village.”
Aiono recalled how the Church assisted the people who became members at the time, and also praised their courage and beliefs.
“The leaders assisted those people at the time and decided to purchase this piece of land, so these people we call them pioneers, people that left behind their families and left behind their villages and their loved ones to travel here to Sauniatu because they decided they wanted to become members of the LDS Church.”
Later on, the Sauniatu Primary School was built despite the many challenges,
She added that in 1921, an apostle of the Church, elder David Mackay came to Sauniatu to visit the Saints and to bless them.
“And when he came here he felt a strong impression that this place is a very special place.”
Aiono spoke dearly of Sauniatu, a place where she was also brought up.
“Sauniatu is a very special place. I grew up here in Sauniatu and I went to school here at Sauniatu. So it’s a blessing for me to come back. To me as an administrator here, I understand about the struggle of the people here especially in such a remote area. So it’s a blessing to even have a school here to help the people around the community.
“The blessings for this village are not only physical blessings but also spiritual blessings. There is a Sauniatu Day celebrated every year, on November 8th.”
Aiono said added that over the year, the school prosper and the Sauniatu waterfall is visited by many.
“I run the school, and I always have to come up with different programmes to make sure we are able to justify how the school is doing at Sauniatu
“Some of the things that the administrator work on is basically the waterfall. We have a Mackay village which is a Samoan fale, and we welcome tourists to come and see what is at Sauniatu.”
But Sauniatu village and waterfall is not a commercialized business tourist site, said Aiono.
“That was not the purpose why it was built but Sauniatu is open to anyone.
“Our waterfall is free, people who come here can come and view the village and everything is free of charge .All we have are guidelines and policies that we ask the public to adhere with.”
She said people of Sauniatu carved the way down to the waterfall, and it was not easy.
“And that’s basically Sauniatu in the nutshell.”
