Back print: full tatau design — a solitary orator's staff (to'oto'o) styled after a traditional carved staff, illustrating the proverb O le to'oto'o sinasina (A white staff)

The Orator's White Staff — Samoan Proverb Tee

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$23.99
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Back print: full tatau design — a solitary orator's staff (to'oto'o) styled after a traditional carved staff, illustrating the proverb O le to'oto'o sinasina (A white staff)
  • Back print: full tatau design — a solitary orator's staff (to'oto'o) styled after a traditional carved staff, illustrating the proverb O le to'oto'o sinasina (A white staff)
  • Back print: full tatau design — a solitary orator's staff (to'oto'o) styled after a traditional carved staff, illustrating the proverb O le to'oto'o sinasina (A white staff)
The Orator's White Staff — Samoan Proverb Tee

The Orator's White Staff — Samoan Proverb Tee

$23.99
Color

O le to'oto'o sinasina.
"A white staff."

This alagaupu (Samoan proverb) refers to the to'oto'o — the carved wooden staff carried by a tulafale (talking chief) as the badge of his orator's office. Here sinasina (very white) is used in the sense of new or unused: a staff not yet weathered by years of service. As an upu fa'amaulalo (a humbling, self-deprecating expression), it's applied to a young talking chief — a graceful way of naming inexperience, honoring the role while acknowledging it hasn't yet been proven by time.

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