More than hundred members of the Atoa-Tugaga family came from across the world for one week to celebrate the life of their ancestors and reunite at St Therese Hotel in Leauvaa.

This is their 13th reunion since 1983 celebrating five generations of the family with the goal to reunite all their relatives from across the globe, strengthen their bonds, as well as their culture and roots.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Tagaloataoa Delsa Atoa Moe who is from the third generation said it has been momentous and a success for their family over the years reuniting everyone and documenting their family tree.

"This is our 13th reunion an the reason why we have them is not only for our family members to get to know each other because as he generations get deeper, we won't know our cousin's children and grandchildren so it is a good time for us to get to know them and a very good time for them to know the older generation and where they are from," she said.

"The identity of a person is very important and you can not appreciate who you are as an individual unless you know who your ancestors are and the reunion is the opportunity for them to learn about their ancestors.

"Also for those of us that live far away from each other, we can connect on social media but it's not as good as in-person relationships and bonding so in short, it's to strengthen our family and to get to know each other a little bit better."

The Atoa-Tugaga family started the reunion when Faagutu Tugaga Atoa from the first generation passed away in 1982. Her sister, Eseese Satele reminisced on her life back then and initiated that the family should do more gatherings.

"So the very next year on the anniversary of her one year, we had our very first family reunion in 1983 and it was very small but we said we're going to continue to do this that way it gives us time to raise money and get time off from work," Tagaloaatoa explained.

Every three years the family holds a reunion anywhere in the world and the host is selected through votes at the end of every reunion.

"But every other reunion, we always come back to Samoa because this is where our family came from. We based it on Atoa Polito and his wife Faagutu from the Tugaga line in Safune.

"However, the family decided over the years that instead of having a reunion for the two siblings' children and grandchildren of Polito and Faagutu, they decided to extend it to their siblings and their descendants.

"Many of them for example, my Papa Polito's oldest sister Tali, by the time my Papa was born, Tali was already married and from her line, her granddaughter married a Rotuman man and that's why we have Rotuman cousins.

"We have the Manueli's here from Fiji, probably the most prominent member of our Manueli clan is Colonel Paul Manueli who was the first commander of the Fijian army of Polynesian descent.

"He is Rotuman, born and raised in Fiji so he has since passed away but we have his widow here and many of his nieces came from our Manueli line.

The family also had families from Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A, Hawaii, Fiji, and the United Kingdom.

"Wherever the family is at, we would like to come together not just for faalavelave but to get together and meet each other's new children and new spouses and it's fun," Tagaloaatoa said.

"This is the first time for my grandchildren to come to Samoa and I was worried that they would have to stick to their parents but on the second day they made friends with their cousins and their older cousins so I'm very happy and we all are."

One of the achievements of the family is documenting their ancestry for future generations.

"Our family tree is very important and it's not just orally but we want to document it on paper and so we have several of our family members who are experts in family history and genealogy work and what they do is they gather any new information on all our family members including spouses and children and enter it into ancestory.com or familysearch.com and that's where they keep records of their family.

"That's why anywhere in the world, they can log in and see their family history."

Last Thursday, the family gathered at St Therese Hotel for their Samoan cultural day where they conducted several Samoan activities to instill the Fa'asamoa way into their children as well as for overseas-based relatives to keep track of their roots and culture.

They learned how to husk a coconut which some adults from overseas experienced for the first time, learned how the ava ceremony is conducted and its value, as well as simple activities revolving around respect like saying "tulou" when walking in front of someone.

"All those values of faaaloalo or resspect is not as important outside of Samoa but we try to teach them as they don't see it in action," Tagaloaatoa said.

They also hosted a remembrance candlelight service to remember their relatives who have passed on since their last family reunion in 2017.

Sadly for the family, one of their members lost her life during the reunion due to illness and the family took a special moment to grieve her passing.

Meanwhile, the granddaughter of William Blacklock who was the American consul in Samoa in the late 1800s who married one of the first-generation siblings of the family, joined the one-week celebration.

The family had moved to New York and she graduated from Harvard University in 1950 and the family is confident that the 94-year-old is the very first person of Samoan ancestry to graduate from Harvard.