Hokum Legacy
From Western Samoa · for the generations yet to come

The Hokum Family Legacy

Stories told by our elders, kept in their own words and, wherever we can, in their own voices, so the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren can hear them for themselves.

See the stories
Family photograph from 1964 taken outside a house in Samoa as Foalima Hokum left on his mission.
Samoa, 1964 · Foalima leaving on his mission
The stories

Told Around the Family Fire

Each story has its own page: read it, look through the pictures, and listen to it told the way it was told to us.

Cover of Johnny and Sina: Johnny on a Samoan beach at sunset beside a white swan, holding a small rusty sword.
Story one

Johnny and Sina

The Rusty Sword and the White Swan

Told by Foalima Hokum of Western Samoa, passed down from his grandfather, Emosi Valu.

Original recording, about 43 minutes · 52 illustrated pages

Hear Grandpa tell it Read the story
More stories on the way

Coming Soon

Each of these will have its own page here, with the storyteller's voice wherever there is a recording.

Coming soon

Love Story of Emosi and Falelua

Coming soon

Love Story of Foalima and Sue

Coming soon

Love Story of Freeman and Wilda Rasmussen

Coming soon

Leon Rasmussen

Coming soon

Sue Rasmussen Life Story

Coming soon

Foalima Hokum Life Story

The ones the stories are for

The Family Today

The extended Hokum family in 2023, gathered in tall grass under green trees, with Foalima and his wife seated in the center.
The family, 2023