Fourty-four women members of Moataa Aualuma (women's village group) are bringing back old traditional weaving skills and showcasing them at this year's Teuila Festival in Apia.

Several organisations, business entrepreneurs, as well as community groups, have set up booths at the Samoa Tourism Authority's Cultural Centre in town as part of the 2023 Teuila Festival showcasing traditional artistic flare and selling their art pieces where possible.

The Moataa Aualuma was one such community group with one of its senior members, Ana Poutoa Nua revealing that they are reviving one of Samoa's Measina (a cultural treasure) of traditional weaving, with the initiative supported by funding from the Government's $1 million District Development Project.

"We thought that it would be a great initiative to bring young and old women of the village together to revive this measina of the country and we're proud we did," she said.

"This is not the first time we have showcased these arts through this measina as we started through the government's $1 million project to develop districts and this is our way of developing our own village, by reviving this treasure of Samoa."

According to Mrs. Nua, this initiative also enables them to harness the talents of youth in the village, especially young women while pointing them in the right path. 

"Most of the aualuma nowadays are made of young women including our aualuma and this is a great way to push them into this circle and keep them from taking the wrong paths," she said. "It's all about our love for this measina plus pushing these young women to use their talents and make something out of themselves as well as getting them to thrive in their culture and be proud of it."

Prior to this year's Teuila Festival, Moataa's aualuma also showcased their uniquely woven fine mats at other Government-sanctioned public events such as the 61st Independence celebrations this year.

As the country hosted foreign guests at the Independence celebrations, the Moataa aualuma group cheered with pride when their fine mats were used as decoration to welcome overseas heads of government.