A reception was held to welcome descendants of Samoan Chief Iiga Pisa, one of the chiefs who came to Saipan in the 1900s, as part of the celebration of the historical event\u2019s 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Headed by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, the reception was held at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan and was attended by government officials including members of the Legislature Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
Fuailelagi Tuitama, a great granddaughter of chief Iiga pisa, said coming to Saipan is like having a reconnection with her past.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming. It\u2019s an opportunity for my generation, because I am a great granddaughter, to come to Saipan and first of all experience Saipan. I\u2019ve never heard of it before and coming here has really been a real eye opener for us. It\u2019s a reconnection,\u201d Tuitama said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience of coming here is really like retracing my great grandfather\u2019s steps,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
According to council executive director Scott Russell, the Samoans\u2019 chapter in Saipan\u2019s history is significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaipan was home to another group of people for a substantial period of time and nobody really knows about that history, it has been forgotten,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we\u2019re fortunate to have is an account that was written by the chief, Iiga Pisa. He wrote it himself in the early 1940,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
For Tuitama, what she experienced and discovered here on Saipan, she will pass on to her generations as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a mom so I\u2019d like to pass this kind of lineage on to my children and the legacy that he\u2019s left us, to inspire us, to explore the beyond,\u201d Tuitama said.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re hoping that from this initial gathering, that there\u2019ll be a follow up from what the Humanities Council has started,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A reception was held to welcome descendants of Samoan Chief Iiga Pisa, one of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5565,5566,67,3600],"class_list":["post-204711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-fuailelagi-tuitama","tag-legislature-wednesday","tag-people","tag-scott-russell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}