Savaii

Savaiʻi is the largest island of Samoa, a volcanic land with high interior slopes and villages along its coast. Samoan communities trace their histories through chiefly titles, families and relationships with other islands. Its coastal villages faced the strait separating the two large islands. Voyages, alliances and conflict linked Savaiʻi with neighboring Upolu as well as Tonga and Fiji.

In 1722 Jacob Roggeveen sighted the Samoan islands during a Dutch Pacific voyage. In 1830 the missionary John Williams came to Savaiʻi and met the chief Malietoa Vainuʻupo at Sapapaliʻi. Christianity was already present in Samoa, but this encounter became an important part of accounts of its spread. Samoan teachers and chiefs would shape the new religion’s reception within their own communities.