practice in ECE. Tautua was often mentioned alongside the notion of alofa (love). For example, La (senior leader) described her leadership as service and as “having that heart”. She also explained how she had learned to serve others by observing family members lead within her family and how her Grandfather had led his village. Similarly, Penina (teacher/ leader) spoke of her father’s role as a high chief and his value of serving others with “his heart”: Even though my dad holds a high chief title, to my dad, o le na o le title a [it's just a title], but his loto [soul] is to serve his people with his heart. However, enacting tautua (service) and alofa (love) was not always easy to maintain. Lagi (senior leader) pointed out how duty to serve one’s family and community can be so strong, that it can lead to giving up one’s job in order to fulfil tautua responsibilities. Enacting tautua is an important tenet of being Samoan, within Samoa and outside of Samoa in diaspora communities (Fa’aea & Enari, 2021). The main premise of tautua is multilevelled and involves serving your family (‘aiga), your matai (titled chief of the family), your village (nu’u), your church (lotu) and God (Atua), your community and country (atunu’u), irrespective of where you were born or raised (Fa’aea & Enari, 2021; Tominiko, 2020). Hence, tautua takes many forms. Tautua to the family can be in the form of food provision, supporting them financially, providing good decisions or even bringing people together (Sio, 2020). These obligations of tautua fa’a Samoa (service the Samoan way) have remained the same despite culture evolving over time (Filisi, 2018), but how they are enacted has been adapted to suit living away from the homeland (Tominiko, 2020). As evident in Lagi’s (senior leader) comment earlier, enacting tautua is not always easy, especially as it requires an investment over one’s entire life (Faaea & Enari, 2021). The notion of tautua seemed to be embodied in many participants’ ways of being, highlighting it was an unquestioned expectation of being Samoan in NZ and back in Samoa. This embodiment suggests that tautua is learned and experienced from childhood to adulthood through ongoing participation in family and community life. Fa’aea and Enari (2021) outline three spheres of tautua as a life cycle, which they contend can help Samoans to reflect on how they live their lives. In the tautua ia tautua (serve to serve) stage, children learn about and how to tautua by observing, listening to, and participating in family events, church gatherings and village life with expectations of loyalty, love and respect. In the tautua i le pule (serve to lead) stage, one’s tautua is put to the test by serving the family at community events, including through speaking opportunities (tautua upu – service through oratory). In the third stage, pule ia tautua (lead to serve), elders serve the family by sharing their knowledge with the children and grandchildren to pass on their legacy, and teach important types of tautua and ways to bring honour and respect to the family. Knowing how tautua is learned and experienced over the lifespan December 2021 { 21 }
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