Naked Samoans

The Naked Samoans is a New Zealand comedy group made up of Polynesian entertainers, most of whom are Samoan. The group performs social humour and satire that attracts a broad audience, especially among white New Zealanders, without sacrificing the group's Pacific Island identity. The group has gained success in both television and film projects as well as in theatre, which remains their primary base in entertainment. The members of this group are David Fane, Mario Gaoa, Shimpal Lelisi, Oscar Kightley, Robbie Magasiva and Jerome Leota.

Early beginnings

The group started in 1998 with their first stage production entitled Naked Samoans Talk about Their Knives (the title is a parody of a New Zealand film Topless Women Talk About Their Lives). Appearing in several cities in New Zealand, their show was a sellout success. This led to a series of successful productions in theatre that brought media attention to the entertainers. Their material on such subjects like racism and violence were surprising to some, but nonetheless their base grew. Originally the Naked Samoans consisted of four members, but in January 2001 Robbie Magasiva joined the group and has remained a member since.

List of Samoans

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Samoan cabinet ministers and their portfolios 2011

Other Samoan cabinet ministers and their portfolios 2001-2006

Samoans

The Samoan people are a Polynesian ethnic group of the Samoan Islands, sharing genetics, language, history and culture. Due to colonialism, the home islands are politically and geographically divided between the country of Samoa, official name Independent State of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa until country name change in 1997) and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Samoans living in Samoa in 2006 were estimated at 188,000. The majority of ethnic Samoans now reside in other countries, primarily in the United States (180,000 in 2012),New Zealand (115,000 in 2001) and Australia (55,843 in 2011).

Migration

Although the Samoan Natives (Tagata Māo‘i) have long claimed to be the indigenous people of their islands — holding firm to the belief that Samoans were birthed by special creation in Samoa — it has been theorized by many linguists and anthropologists, based on linguistic commonalities as well as archaeological findings, that migrants from Southeast Asia arrived in the Samoan Islands approximately 3500 years ago, settling in what has come to be known as Polynesia further to the east. This approximation is based on the Lapita pottery that has been dated to that time.