Local teacher represents Am Samoa at national environmental & cultural program

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Elementary school teacher Sierra M. Fata, has been selected as the island-wide representative for the Blue Waters Exchange Program, a six-month initiative funded by the U.S. Forest Service aimed at studying the significance of environmental preservation and cultural conservation.

The cohort consists of eleven knowledgeable individuals with different indigenous backgrounds from California and Hawaii, with Ms Fata as the first and only representative of American Samoa in the 2024 Blue Waters Exchange cohort. 

Blue Waters Exchange Program is made up of a group of changemakers that allow individuals to explore various ways to promote change one step at a time while simultaneously weaving in connections from multiple cultural perspectives. By developing a safe space of learning and intentional conversations, future potential leaders like Sierra can branch out with confidence towards their communities with a stronger determination to purposefully act toward change and impact.

“It is hard to describe in words the amazing experience I had with Blue Waters, but the growth from day one to the final day is undeniably visible,” Ms Fata said. “When you travel out and meet different Indigenous or inspiring individuals who are dedicated to making a change, you ask yourself what kind of changes you want to make back home. American Samoa is MY home, and the first step to making a positive change is for us to continue to step out and learn and not have others learn for us.”

She is an alumnus of Finafinau, a nonprofit organization based in American Samoa that promotes environmental advocacy among the youth, where her interest in the environmental study had first sparked and was later introduced to the application by mentor Dr. Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka in January 2024. 

She is now preparing for the program’s Ho’ike, a final presentation that will be held via Zoom where she, along with the rest of her cohort members, will be presenting their six-month experience of the program on August 29, 2024, at 11:00 am SST. This Zoom session is open to future applicants or any individual curious to learn more about the program, as the program will be looking for future applicants for the year 2025 after concluding the current year’s project.

Prior to this educational opportunity Sierra was a 4th grade teacher at Manulele Tausala Elementary School.

As the program concludes for Ms Fata, she plans to continue to grow as an advocate for environmental preservation by actively applying for programs that can expand her knowledge and growing a better understanding of the Samoan culture to develop as a leader for her community. 

BACKGROUND

The Blue Waters Exchange Program is a project under the Mālama ʻĀina Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Hawaii, with the prime goal of building potential future leading ambassadors of environmental advocacy through a six-month learning experience of exposure to environmental issues, intentional communication engagement, and broadening cultural understanding and perspective.

The program was virtually initiated in February, where scheduled virtual conferences to exchange different cultural perspectives, broaden an understanding of different spaces, and initiate the conversation on plausible actions as representatives of their communities were discussed till the end of May. The second portion of the program, from June to August, was the opportunity for the cohort members to personally visit and work in the discussed fields in the states of California and Hawaii by identifying invasive aquatic species, recognizing native plants, and restoring natural habitats through community engagement.