Samoa Community Project: Year One Report (2021-2022)

The Samoan Community Project builds on API-GBV’s Pasifika Power & Control Wheel Translation Project, which sought to adapt the well-used tool to Pasifika languages and cultural/community contexts. This report highlights the needs to unpack the Samoan words further, to allow Samoan communities in their own respective social organizations, to discuss, unpack, critique, consider new, replace old, provide validation and even create more relevant terms that align within the current Samoan milieu as well as the issues associated with DV and GBV.

The initial translation project was intended to be used as a language resource for individuals and organizations across domestic violence and gender-based violence field. The Samoan translation of the Power and Control Wheel (PCW) only provided a word-for-word translation as well as some minimal cultural contextual considerations for each translated word(s). While this provided some direction and focus, there was paucity in the interface between the Samoan translated words and its application to the domestic violence (DV) and gender-based violence (GBV) problem in the Samoan diaspora living in the United States of America. The Samoan Community Project seeks to contribute to this gap.