According to a legend in

Samoan mythology Samoan culture tells stories of many different deities. There were deities of the forest, the seas, rain, harvest, villages, and war. There were two types of deities, ''atua'', who had non-human origins, and ''aitu'', who were of human origin. Ta ...

Tilafaiga was one of the twin sisters who brought the art of ''

tatau Tatau is a town, and the capital of the Tatau District in Bintulu Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The district's reported total population for Tatau was 31,920 in 2020. Tatau became a district in 1987. Before that it was a sub district under Bi ...

'' (Samoan tattoo) to

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

from

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. Tilafaiga's twin sister's name is

Taema Taema is the name of a female figure referred to in different legends in Samoan mythology.
Samoa ...

. Tilafaiga and Taema can also be referred to as the Matriarchs of the Samoan tatau.
Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago by George Turner Tilafaiga is the mother of

Nafanua Nafanua was a historical ''aliʻi'' (Paramount Chief/Queen) and ''toa'' (warrior) of Samoa from the Sā Tonumaipeʻa clan, who took the four ''pāpā'' (district) titles, the leading ''aliʻi'' titles of Samoa. After her death she became a goddes ...

, the famous Samoan Warrior Princess, whose father was Saveasi'uleo the Ali'i of the spirit

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

Pulotu Pulotu is the resting place of those passed on in the Polynesian narrative of Tonga and Samoa, the world of darkness "lalo fonua" (as opposed to the human world of light). Name The term is related to Fijian ''Burotu''. It goes back to Proto-Po ...

References

See also