We had an early breakfast and watched the ship dock at the Container Wharf. The island looked very pretty.
At 8:30 we walked down the main street along the waterfront and found markets and clothing shops. Many items had no price so we assumed they would be cheaper tomorrow and we were not keen enough to bother bargaining, so bought very little.
We found the National Park Office which was part of the US Parks Department. The Parks here are unique, they said, in that they have been leased to the Federal Government for 50 years, so the local chiefs retain ownership. That sounds like Uluru. We were able to watch several good videos on Samoan Culture.
The first one showed the traditional dance called "Siva" which was always performed by the princess.
Another one showed in detail how the women made fine mats, by weaving fine strips of dried pandanus leaves into large ceremonial mats. They decorated them with red feathers taken from the cardinal honeyeater bird (without killing it). Now they dye chicken feathers to save disturbing the protected birds.
Another video showed how the men make a lure to catch an octopus. The lure is based on a legend of how an octopus helped a rat to get to shore from an overturned canoe by carrying it on its head. Since the rat pooped on the octopus's head along the way, all octopuses now chase a rat in the water. The lure is thus in the shape of a rat. We saw a young man catching the octopus by grabbing it out of the water and turning its head inside out with his teeth to stop it from sticking to his arm or back with its suckers.
Then we watched how tapa cloth is made from the bark of mulberry trees. It involved stripping, scraping, beating, soaking, drying, stretching, patching and using moulded patterns to imprint designs. They used these cloths for dressing and for ceremonies. Like the mats, they take huge amounts of time (sometimes years) to make and are treasured.
We returned to the ship and at 3pm and had a talk from a local ranger about the Parks and the Culture.
The evening show was another great concert from the Alley Cats Doo Wop quartet.
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