Āʻoga ʻĀmata

Language nests are sites of language learning in which children are fully immersion in the target language. Its roots are derived from the language nests originally created in Aotearoa (New Zealand). 

The first language nest was created in the 1970s in Auckland and was a Samoan and Cook Islander language nest. The 1980s saw the rise of the Māori Kōhanga Reo and subsequent Hawaiian Pūnana Leo movement that sought to revitalize their respective Indigenous languages. 

The āʻoga ʻāmata movement in Aotearoa grew out of the desire to transmit Samoan language to young children in the growing Samoan communities in Auckland and other places in New Zealand. 

In the United States, there has only been one documented Samoan language immersion preschool in Havard, California. 

The Association of Samoan Language Nests, Faʻalāpotopotoga a Āʻoga ʻĀmata Sāmoa (FAʻASāmoa), aims to serve the growing Samoan population in Hawaiʻi and the United States Continent, where more than 246,000 Samoans now reside. The growing number of Samoans outside of our traditional homeland means that there is a growing need for Samoan language programs to perpetuate the transmission of our language.