DOI offers heartfelt condolences on passing of Faleomavaega

During last Thursday’s prayer service for the former Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin, US Interior Department local field representative Lydia Faleafine-Nomura, on behalf of the DOI and acting assistant secretary for Insular Areas, Nikolao Pula read a message of condolences that also included Pula’s trubute to Faleomavaega, who passed away Feb. 22 at Provo Utah.

Faleafine-Nomura, who at times delivered Pula’s message in a quivering emotion-filled voice, said the acting assistant secretary for Insular Areas will attend Faleomavaega’s final service on Mar. 10- 11 in Provo. The message, the first public official one from DOI, as well as Pula, who is the executive director of DOI’s Office of Insular Affairs, described Faleomavaega as a “long time public servant of our people” who served American Samoa in the US House with “great honor” and the “record of his accomplishments speaks for itself.”

“Eni was an articulate and intelligent member of Congress, who fought diligently for a fair share of the federal monies for the citizens and also the non citizens Nationals of the territory,” he said. “Moreover, he took upon himself, to speak out, not only on behalf of the people of American Samoa but also for other Pacific islands on issues that he wanted to be heard in the Halls of Congress.”

Pula goes on to say, that he has “countless memories” of Faleomavaega. “I remember sitting across from him at the witness table at Congressional hearings, where he grilled me with tough questions, asking me — why didn’t the Department of Interior do this, why they didn’t they do that.”

He recalled seeing Faleomavaega “argue passionately” with his Congressional colleagues about the federal government “not living up to its obligation to the peoples in the islands.”

“Years ago I smiled, watching him turn red in the face in his office in Washington D.C. debating former Governor Togiola [Tulafono] on an important policy issue relating to the territory,” Pula’s message read.  “It was thrilling for me to be in midst of a robust debate between these two opinionated — and we all know how opinionated our Congressman was — but very intelligent attorneys who were prominent leaders of our territory.”

(Samoa News notes that both Faleomavaega and Togiola were attorneys by profession, before becoming politicians.)

Pula also remembered, playing the guitar and sitting next to Faleomavaega — playing the ukulele, “and sang old Samoan folk songs with several Samoan soldiers in Missouri at the retirement party for former Command Sgt. Maj. Kimo Falaniko.”

“We had a grand time, singing and laughing into the late hours of the night,” Pula said. “These are fond memories of this loving and wonderful man.”

Pula’s message also revealed Faleomavaega’s religious side, being a long-standing member of the Mormon faith.

“Perhaps a more touching and endearing story for me, happen just this past Sunday (Feb. 26). A 37-year old, 6-foot-seven, over 300 pound young adult named John, stood up during the Sacrament meeting, at the Annandale, Virginia [Mormon Church] Ward, to sing a hymn entitled ‘A Young Boy Prayed’,” Pula said.

Before he sang, John told the audience, “Yes, I am tall and I am big. But believe it or not when I was born, my parents told me, I was premature’,” Pula recalled adding that John had among other health issues, hepatitis, an enlarged liver and a fever of 104, at the time of his birth.

“Things were touch and go for John, but his parents decided to fast and pray for three days before giving him a priesthood blessing,” Pula explained. “Later that day, John’s father Lyle saw Eni at a church social because they were in the same ward and he was asking... Lyle, why he wasn’t eating. And Lyle replied to Eni that ‘he was fasting for his new born baby’.”

“At that moment Eni made a decision to join Lyle and his family in the three-day fast,” Pula said.  “And on the third day, Eni anointed the baby, John, with consecrated oil, while his father Lyle, sealed the anointing with a blessing. And that is why big John said, ‘I want to dedicate this hymn to our family friend Eni, who had passed away recently’.”

“Of course, I sat there in the congregation with tears rolling down my face, nodding my head in prayer, thinking about my dear friend Eni and uttering the words,” said Pula.

After reading Pula’s message, Faleafine-Nomura then shared with the audience a few personal things about Faleomavaega, whom she met in the 1980s while working at the Governor’s Office, during the first term of the Lutali Administration, when Faleomavaega was lieutenant governor.

“To be very frank and honest, people never seem to remember him [Faleomavaega] around, in the office. He was never around, he was always afoot, never sitting idle, going here and there,” Faleafine-Nomura said.

She remembered being told Faleomavaega was going to be a crewmember on the Polynesian voyaging canoe, Hokule’a, sailing from Tahiti to Hawai’i. “As a young college graduate, I said, ‘Oh, how can they let our lieutenant governor go on that vessel, it’s so unsafe’. And I thought, ‘oh, he must not be that important. If that vessel sinks, we’ve got to find another lieutenant governor’,” she said. 

“But if any of you know Eni, once he made his mind up, he was going to do what he wanted to do,” she told the prayer service audience. 

And when he was elected to Congress, “I remember thinking ‘how wonderful it was, for our people had elected someone of a younger generation,’ because we all know how difficult it is to get into that door,” she said.

She said she read an article not long after Faleomavaega was in Congress, “about the American Samoa Congressman who was wearing a ‘skirt’ in the Halls of Congress in the dead of winter. Of course, he goes around with his ‘ie fai taga’ and nobody understood why he was wearing a ‘skirt’.” That prompted laughter from the crowd.

“But he was so proud of his Samoan heritage and he took every opportunity to display it to his colleagues in Congress,” she said.

“Honestly, he and I differed on a lot of policies and social issues, but that never ever stopped me from respecting him as our Congressman. And looking back, on the things that we differ, he had wisdom far beyond me, because he was right. And many of those social programs are now helping our people.

“He did not mince words and he wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he believed in and the position on his issues,” she said, adding that when she thinks of Faleomavaega, she thinks about a book by President John F. Kennedy, called “Profile in Courage”, which is about eight US Senators that stood up in the Halls of Congress and spoke out for what they believed in.

“And it ended their political careers. But to me that was what Eni was. Eni is American Samoa’s ‘Profile in Courage’, because he was never afraid of doing what he believed was right and just,” she said.

Faleafine-Nomura also told the audience “I cried for Eni on two occasions. The first occasion was when he lost the election in 2014. Literally I cried for almost an hour, I was so upset. The second [time], is when I heard, that he had passed.”

“American Samoa,” she said, in an emotion filled voice, “has lost a good man. A true servant and a fine statesman, he will be truly missed.”

She concluded by saying that her prayers go out to the widow, Mrs. Hinanui Hunkin, the family and all of Faleomavaega’s family.