Plastic: How This Term Continues to Hurt Our Culture

This topic has been in the back of my mind for a long time now. It hasn’t been an easy topic for me to really formulate the words on how I feel about the term “plastic ________.” No matter what island you descend from, you can be called a “plastic Samoan,” “plastic Maori,” etc. if you happen to not know the intricacies of the culture you’re from, but guess what? Some of us didn’t get the choice. So, let me start from the first time I heard the term “plastic.”

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Sipping Koko

Let’s Talk…

“So’o le fau i le fau.”
Translation: “Join the hibiscus fibre to hibiscus fibre.”

Now, I don’t speak fluent Samoan, but according to the website I went to, that’s a Samoan proverb that means “Unity is strength.” This is something that I think can perfectly describe the Polynesian community physically and metaphorically. We are a people that when we come together there is great strength.

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