Bringing Moemoana to Ōtepoti

To mark Penina o le Moana's 5th year milestone, we are honoured to welcome Moemoana Safa’ato’a Schwenke, an inspiring tama'ita'i Samoa, international artist, and cultural leader, to host a Siva Afi workshop for our 2025 Penina cohort. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our Penina to learn directly from her.

The Penina o le Moana Komiti is a dedicated group supported by the wider Samoan community. We work closely with our founder, Talai Nabalagi, a proud daughter of Samoa and a passionate advocate for Samoan culture. Talai’s vision is to ensure our aganu’u (customs) and gagana Samoa (language) thrive for future generations.

As a lecturer and Pacific Health academic lead at Otago University, Talai integrates storytelling and traditional knowledge into her teaching, fostering cultural understanding. Through the Penina o le Moana program, she brings this same passion to life for our Samoan youth in Dunedin.

Our komiti (committee) has worked hard this year to cover class and other celebration costs through both parent-led fundraising and funding opportunities. This Boosted campaign is specifically to raise funds to cover the costs of bringing Moemoana to Dunedin – travel, accommodation, and workshop expenses.

This ensures that our families are not asked to contribute more financially and allows our Penina to access this incredible opportunity.

Your support will cover:

• Moemoana’s return travel to Dunedin
• Accommodation while she is here
• Workshop facilitation costs, including practice sticks lovingly crafted here in Ōtepoti

Penina o le Moana is a community-led Siva Samoa programme in Dunedin, Aotearoa, that connects Samoan girls and their families with gagana Samoa (language) and aganu’u (customs).

In 2025, we celebrate five years of Penina o le Moana. Over this time, we have grown from 13 participants in our first year to 70 girls enrolled for 2025. Our tama'ita'i and teine Samoa who can proudly stand, dance, and introduce themselves in Samoan.

We have a couple of events planned to mark this milestone, including welcoming Moemoana  Schwenke an inspiring tama'ita'i Samoa, international artist, and cultural leader who will hold a Siva Afi workshop for our 2025 cohort of Penina, a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our girls to learn directly from her.

This will be the first time many of our Penina will meet and learn directly from an internationally recognised tama'ita'i Samoa. For children who have not yet had the chance to travel to Samoa, this is expanding on the ways in which we can bring their culture to them to learn, perform, and connect with someone they look up to.

Being able to commission the production of our practice sticks from within our own community means we're also showcasing to our Penina the cultural knowledge that already surrounds them in both their own families and wider Samoan community. 

For our wider Samoan and Pacific community in Dunedin, this is an opportunity to gather, celebrate, and be inspired.

By contributing to this campaign, you are helping ensure Penina o le Moana’s 5th anniversary is not just a milestone this year, but an experience that our girls will carry with them for life.

We are mindful of the economic landscape and humbly ask for contributions only from those who can afford to do so at this time. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a meaningful difference.

Fa'afetai, fa'afetai, fa'afetai tele lava - thank you so much for your generosity