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This legend is about the origin of the traditional samoan'head dress(tuiga or lauao),the person who first wore it,and how it was made into its present form.the legend begins with a taupou named vitaliutaolepaepae who lived in matautualaa in puipa'a,toamua.vitaliuta,as she is often called,was well know for her beauty and grace.she was tall and slender and had long beautiful light brown hair.one day,vitaliuta made a special.announcement that hse was searching for a husband.the man she would marry had to be handsome as well an expert fisherman.vitaliuta also made it a condition that the fisherman she would marry had to also present her with a fish of her choice.to make things interesting,vitaliuta kept her choice of fish to catch,andsimply had to gueses and hope that the fish they would present to vitaliuta was the same fish she had in mind.every fisherman in samoa attemped to win vitaliuta's heart.many handsome fisherman came in canoes loaded with various kinds of fish in the hope that they had caught the right one.however,no one was able to catch the fish that vitaliuta desired.on one particular day,one of vitaliut's maids came across a fisherman from man'a named lele.during their conversation,the maid revealed vitaliuta's favourite fish.the name of that fish was tuu'u.lele now knew what fish to catch and suer enough he caught himself a good z size tuu'u without too much trouble.the only problem now for lele was that he was not as handsome as many of the other fisherman.in fact,lele was an elderly man completely bald with deep sunked eyes and a very thin,scraggly body.some would even say lele then down right ugly.but lele was desperate and had devised a plan to disguise his ugliness.lele then quikly got to work and made a wig from the husk of a coconut to cover his bald head,and used seashalls to make a pair of goggles to cover his eyes.he then drank huge amounts of sea water to try and bulk up his body.the transformation was incredible.lele looked a completely different person.he had a full head of hair,his eyes were on longer menacing and his body now appeared to be in much better shape.when lele completely the finishing touches to his makeover,he then took his fresh catch tuu'u and prepared himself to claim his beautiful new bride.but vitaliuta had somehow discovered what her disloyal maid had done,and ordered the maid to wait for lele.when lele arrived,vitaliuta decided that as punishmen for revealing her secret,the maid would have to marry lele and return to manu'a with him in his canoe.lele took the maid back to his island,and upon arrival saw his master the tui manu'a.lele explained his ordeal and gave his master the wig and goggles he hadused for his disguise.the wig and the goggles made such an improvement to lele's appearance that it was those very itmes that were used to create the origial tuiga.as it turned out,the tui manu'a later married motusa who wore the first tuiga or lauao.this tuiga was made from vitaliuta's long brown hair and from lele's very own fishing gear. ( What do you thing about that you can comm ok thank you my tagata one samoan history its very good to you and me!!! Tofa laia

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oh so the tuiga originated from Manu'a???

I had to cut my hair to make a tuiga for our village performance at the Teuila Festival in Samoa...cried my makas out but it was important. But the tuiga DOES symbolize the status of the taupou along with her beauty and grace. It used to be the most important of the traditional attire till the new 'Pale's' came out (the thing like a glittery bandana they wrap around the forehead now) i think that killed the tradition abit.
Yes!tutuila and manu'a only have 3 sticks on there tuiga, cuz its to symbolize the 3 kings of samoa, an 3 big tifa in ft of the head dress its to symbolize the islands of manu'a
1).ofu 2).tau 3).olosega.tau its the big tifa,ofu an olosega its the 2 small tifa.in ft of the head dress.then one stick have 3 tifa on it,its to symbolize all 6 islands of manu'a 1).tau2).ofu3).olosega4).fitiuta5).faleasao
an 6).sili. Malo lava faafetai!!!!

*taking notes* :) thanks for sharing bro *salutes*

oh i like this story...very intesting

This is th first time i have heard of this version ..... just a questioon ?? whered the NIFO OTI cum from ? if the first taupou was vitaliutaa ??? !!

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