The Archive

The Anavatau Heritage Archive is a catalogue of academic resources, historical documents, and cultural research about Samoa, the Samoan language, and fa'asamoa.

It draws from digitised archives, academic databases and public domain scholarship, including 19th and early 20th century sources that contain significant documentation of Samoan society, language, and history. Where a resource is in the public domain, the full text is hosted here. Where it is not, the database holds a summary and a direct link to the original source.

What the database contains

Each record is categorised by resource type, cultural topic, language, and access status. Resource types include books, academic papers, journal articles, and historical documents. A resource does not need to be Samoan-authored to appear here; it needs to be Samoan-relevant. Some of the most significant documentation of Samoan history was written by missionaries, colonial administrators, and visiting scholars. Their perspectives are part of the record.

Every resource is reviewed before it appears in the public database.

The writing alongside it

Essays, papers, and blog posts published on Anavatau draw from this archive - and sometimes from sources that have not yet made it in. The database grows as the writing grows. Both are ongoing.

Contributing a resource

If you know of something that belongs here - a paper, a digitised text, a historical document - get in touch.