When American Samoa celebrates next month the raising of the U.S. Flag on Tutuila island, a group made up military veterans and their family members as well as some in active duty, will — for the first time — perform the ‘siva and pese’ for a Flag Day ceremony.

Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga announced in a cabinet meeting early last month that this year’s Flag Day, marking 115 years since American Samoa became a U.S. territory, will be dedicated to members of the U.S. Armed Forces — including those who have retired and others who are currently in active duty serving around the world.

Lolo says that while there is a special time of the year to honor veterans, it's also important that the Flag Day celebration gives time to honor our service members who are both active and retired.

The actual date of the Flag Day ceremony is to be made official soon, but Lolo said the celebration runs from Apr. 12-17. (The week long festivities includes the annual Flag Day program by the Arts Council.)

Last week Lt. Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga, a military veteran, told Samoa News that local veterans will perform the siva and pese  and this will be the first time this has happened during Flag Day celebrations.

And the group of veterans — which includes their family members — started singing practice at Tafuna under the direction of conductor Faaui Vaitautolu, a veteran as well as a deputy director for the Education Department.

Vaitautolu says the ‘pese’ is a traditional Samoan song for these types of events, along with additional words regarding the military service and expressing sincere appreciation to American Samoa for their support of veterans and those in active duty.

Some veterans expressed their sincere appreciation to the Lolo Administration for this great opportunity for them to finally have a chance to perform on Flag Day.

Military retiree Tauiliili Lauifi says veterans appreciate this move by the government to publicly honor them in this special way, by performing the pese and siva.

Lemanu confirmed to Samoa News that an invitation has also been extended to Samoa, via the Prime Minister’s Office, for one group for “siva and pese” and one invitation for a fautasi. He said the Flag Day Committee is awaiting confirmation and names of the village and fautasi from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

There is much local speculation as to who Tuilaepa will select to represent Samoa in the Flag Day fautasi race. Among the fautasi names mentioned are the fautasi from the Don Bosco technical school and Segavao III, which won the 2014 Fautasi race in the Samoa Independence Day celebration.

The Flag Day Committee, which is co-chaired by Lemanu and the Office of Samoan Affairs, is expected to release additional information on Flag Day events soon.

For the fautasi race, a meeting has been called for 9a.m. this Friday at the Office of Samoan Affairs with fautasi captains to discuss several issues, including the original proposal by the fautasi committee that the entry fee for each fautasi is to be $1,000. There have been   objections from some captains, who want the fee lowered to $300.

Samoan Affairs acting secretary, Tuiagamoa Tavai said the entry fee will be finalized at this meeting.

 Another issue to be covered at this meeting is the actual number of fautasi in the race, the length of the race and the time of the race.

Tuiagamoa also said that this will be the final captains’ meeting to finalize every issue pertaining to the fautasi race.

(Original Samoan story was published in yesterday’s front page of Samoa News.)