The projects key concern is located in the village of Fasito’otai, A’ana, Sāmoa where an event of genocide occurred. Over four hundred children, women and the elderly were murdered, their bodies thrown in a pit and burned. This research asks, how can you house a monument on the site of the event by telling its story without enhancing the pain through visual cues? How do you respect the space, the victims and the families of those who had died in the genocide?

The central design methods of this practice-led research are to draw out ideas from written historic accounts of the incident, that then drive the design of a monument. The main focus points of the project are the tito (pit), the victims, the history of the site and the war between A’ana and Manono. The intention is to implement a monument of peace for the victims, provide an attraction for people that changes the atmospheric conditions of the site, while stepping on the ground of history of the victims.

I hope my research will speak through the vā (space) between the site and the materials that implement the weapons and objects, that took place in the evening of the massacre. I also hope It moves to an area of respect and peace, that lays out this history, so people will know the history of Sāmoa.