Making neighbours of the natives: colonial development, political independence, and documentary depictions of Western Samoa

ABSTRACT

This article analyses three documentary films that the National Film Unit (NFU) of New Zealand made between 1947 and 1962 when Samoa was administered as a United Nations trust territory by the New Zealand government. I argue that the films display a discursive and cinematic shift over that time: from depicting Samoa as an idyllic paradise that ‘time forgot’ to a more realistic documentary style as Samoa became the first formerly colonised sovereign Pacific state in the twentieth century. While the films only superficially engage with the people and the culture they depict, omitting much that might conflict with positive messaging, and while they largely fail to engage with traditional Samoan mores (these are etic rather than emic depictions), as Western Samoa draws nearer to political independence, the NFU’s representational strategies evolve, transforming erstwhile and mute ‘natives’ into ostensible and voluble ‘neighbours’.

KEYWORDS:

• Decolonisation
• documentary film
• national film unit
• Samoa
• New Zealand

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Simon Sigley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1953-1405

Notes on contributor

Simon Sigley is a senior lecturer in screen studies and digital media production. He works on the symbolic role and function of film in the cultural imaginary, focusing on memory and representation. He writes about film culture, film reception, authorship, and documentary films. He is an experienced digital media practitioner (www.interviewprojectnz.com), fluent in French, and is currently working on a cultural history of New Zealand’s National Film Unit (1941–1990).

Notes

1. Western Samoa – ‘Incredibly Beautiful’ – National Film Unit’s Tour. (1 September 1947). The Evening Post, p. 8.

2. Lord Byron, ‘The Island’ (1823).

3. Telegram to Colonial Secretary (Fiji), 28 June 1947, Archives NZ, Record 311/4/7, Countries – Western Samoa – Political Affairs – Film of the UN Mission.

4. 20 16mm copies of the film were struck, with most being sent to New Zealand embassies and delegations in London, Washington, Canberra, and Ottawa. Memo to Cyril Morton, NFU, 21 February 1949, AAEG 950/622/E. The film also screened at the Third International Festival of Documentary Films at Edinburgh (1949). Film Festival Certificate, Archives NZ, AAPG W3940/1/3.

5. Memo for Minister of External Affairs from NZ Ambassador (Washington), Archives NZ, AAEG W3240 950/622/E 311/4/7.

6. It was also screened in July 1958 at the Berlin International Film Festival.

7. Memo from Frank Chilton to Geoffrey Scott, 12 March 1956, Archives NZ, AAPG W3435 Box 24 3/3/6, Film Production – Island Territories.

8. Memo to Director of Information Services from Secretary Island Territories, 30 August 1956, that relays the High Commissioner’s great consideration ‘of the enthusiastic and hard-working approach with which Mr. Chilton and his colleagues faced their task in Samoa, and mentions that they all earned the respect and affection of those people with whom they came into contact’. Archives NZ, AAPG W3435 Box 24 3/3/6.

9. ‘Films on Western Samoa’, 21 September 1956, Archives NZ, AAPG W3435 Box 24 3/3/6.

10. ‘Films on Western Samoa’, 17 January 1957, Archives NZ, IT1 455 EX 84/5.

11. Letter from Chilton to Scott, 22 April 1959. ‘Technical Assistance – Western Samoa. Production and use of informational film’. Archives NZ, AAPG W3435 Box 24 3/3/6.

12. Ibid.

13. Space prevents me from examining the attention given to the sound track.

14. Malietoa is a state dynasty and one of four paramount chiefly titles in Samoa.

15. Her thesis was entitled ‘The Pattern of Education and the Factors Influencing that Development in the New Zealand Dependencies in the Pacific’. Curiously, although identified by title and name in Chilton’s thorough information files, the film only describes her as a Samoan MA graduate. Yet when the commentary was recorded (22–23 November 1961), she had completed her PhD at the University of London (1960) under the name Fanaafi Ma’ia’i and was employed as a lecturer at Victoria University between 1961–65.

16. The UN had reservations about granting Samoa independence because of this undemocratic process – whence the national plebiscite in 1961 – to which the Samoans replied that it was more democratic because it respected traditional village governance structures, in which ‘adult members of each aiga elected their matai, head of the family, who would represent their interests in local and international affairs’. Lafoa’I (1991).

17. Information Sheet, 18 July 1961. Roll A Aerials. Archives NZ, AAPG W3435 Box 24 3/3/6.

18. Ibid. Roll E Okesene and Family. Archives NZ, AAPG W3435 Box 24 3/3/6.

19. Ibid.