It was a long time coming for Papua New Guinea’s Solicitor General, Tanuvasa Tauvasa Tanuvasa Chou-Lee.

At the break of dawn, early last Saturday morning, the PNG constitutional office holder from Apai village, Manono Tai joined close to 40 other Samoans for a matai bestowal ceremony, on the scenic island.

Sitting among their ranks was also his 64-year-old father, Mautanoa Mapusaga as well as his younger brother and National University of Samoa (NUS) staff member, Matama’a Brandon Fatu. They were all bestowed with the Tanuvasa title, which originates from the island in the Apolima Straits between Savai’i and Upolu islands.

Mautanoa said they travelled to Manono last Friday where they were given blessings by the local church pastors and awaited the formal ava ceremony early last Saturday morning on New Year’s Eve.

A graduate of the PNG University of Technology (UNITECH), where he also met his Papua New Guinean wife Amanda, he went on to work for the Melanesian country’s Department of Finance in the 1980s.

However, after 6-7 years of working for the PNG national government, he said getting his children to reconnect with their Samoan cultural roots was one reason he decided to move back to Samoa.

Following his bestowal last Saturday, together with his two sons, Mautanoa said he was proud to witness their bestowal with the Tanuvasa title. He said the decision to have his two sons get bestowed was deliberate - as one was a PNG resident and the other based in Samoa - which ensured the family stayed on top of its cultural obligations.

“I am proud to have them [get the title], especially him [Tanuvasa], that’s why I got the other one to get the title because this one will get it and go back to PNG,” he said. “If Tau [Tanuvasa] was staying here, maybe only Tau will get the title. He’s been carrying the name himself, so it is only fair that he gets the title. He’s the one who’s made the title popular in PNG and everywhere he goes.”

Born and raised in PNG, Tanuvasa said he felt like there was always “something missing” and getting bestowed with the title gave him a sense of fulfilment. 

He said the decision by their father to also get his younger sibling to be bestowed with the same title showed that he was a “strategist”, as he currently lives in PNG with their youngest, Mapusaga Tanuvasa Chou-Lee (Junior), who is also a lawyer who got admitted to the PNG bar in 2021. 

“Somebody has to keep the PNG roots; I am with the last born [sibling in PNG] and I am trying to get him to know his Manus relatives. I am there at every haus krai [fa’alavelave] and I’m explaining to him. For me, it is kind of keeping the PNG connection.”

Getting their youngest brother to assimilate to the norms of their PNG culture is a responsibility that the PNG Solicitor General says he has taken on board.

Tanuvasa said his brother Matama’a is currently taking care of their parents in Moamoa and he and his other siblings contribute where and when they can from abroad. One of his sisters, Helen Chou-Lee is currently working at the Samoa Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. While another, Marleena Chou-Lee Vaifale lives in China, where she is a teacher.

Service to the family and the village is at the core of a matai’s responsibility and the PNG Solicitor General said he acknowledges that following his bestowal last Saturday together with his brother.

“For example, if something happened to dad, what are we going to do? I would expect Matama’a to know and Helen to know and then we can then make sure we do it correctly,” said Tanuvasa. “We have to understand the [cultural] process and what’s appropriate to the culture.

“Marleena and Helen, eventually will come back and do what we have to do, and those things we have to do as a family and to the extended family as well. We have to show that leadership in that sense, we show leadership elsewhere, but we also have to come and show leadership within the family as well and be authentic about it.”

Keeping their Samoan culture alive is also just as important as maintaining their PNG culture, according to Mautanoa, who added that his children will also need to grow their knowledge of their cultural links to Baluan Island in PNG’s Manus Province. Mautanoa’s wife Amanda is part Gabagaba in the Central Province and Manus.

According to the PNG Solicitor General, he and his siblings have experienced more of their mother’s Gabagaba village culture than Baluan growing up, and it is an area that they will need to work on more going into the future, having already made headway in their Samoan culture.

Tanuvasa was appointed the PNG Solicitor General in March 2019 for three years and had his term of office extended in March 2022 for another two years.