A Servantship Dream: Serving Each Other and Our Planet

By Falalahemotu Makapatama

Imagining a World of Fakafekauaga - Servantship: Serving each other and our planet

"A world of true servantship and mutual service where my children and planet thrives". As parents and grandparents, this is our dream. – Falahemotu and Makapatama.

"Pa e tau mata moe miti..."

Close your eyes for a moment.

Imagine a world guided not by leadership or management,

but by service, by Fakafekauaga,

the old Niuean way of living through servantship.

Here, servant does not imply subservience

or a role akin to a butler.

Instead, it represents a lifelong commitment to serving the greater good

of people, communities, and our planet, as understood through the philosophy of Fakafekauaga, a time-honoured concept from Niuean village culture.

The roots of my dream

This dream is not new to me. It was born long before I could name it.

I was raised in Fakafekauaga.

My mother, Selepa Kumitau, served her community as a teacher all her life until her retirement.

My father, Sionepaea Kumitau, also a teacher and social worker for more than forty years, continues to serve even now in his eighties.

When our family moved from Niue to Aotearoa New Zealand, my father became the first Pacific Island social worker in the Department of Social Welfare during the 1980s, while my mother continued her calling in education.

A central observation for me was seeing just how happy they were in their service.

Their joy came from giving, guiding, and uplifting others.

They became pillars of the Niue community in Aotearoa through their serving roles in church, village life, and Niue radio, always giving their time to support and strengthen our people.

Our home was always open. A place of warmth and welcome for many Niuean families who came to Aotearoa seeking opportunity, or visiting for hospital care and support.

To my parents, service began at home. Their love was expressed through hospitality, care, and presence.

Their lifelong commitment to others was honoured when my father was bestowed with the New Zealand Order of Merit, recognising his decades of service and compassion.

Through their example I learned that to live is to serve.

Service was the language of our home.

It was in the meals shared, the people welcomed, the hands extended without hesitation.

Fakafekauaga is not only what I believe. It is who I am.

It lives in my DNA, in my spirit, and in the body shaped by generations who served before me.

It is both inheritance and responsibility, a reminder that service is not an act but a way of being.

The spirit of Fakafekauaga

In Niuean understanding, Fakafekauaga is not a concept.

It is a living philosophy, a way of being in relationship with all things.

It reminds us that every person, regardless of title or role,

is tagata fakafekau — one who serves

for the well-being of others and environment natural environment that holds us.

Through this service life flourishes.

Power is not found in control or hierarchy

but in the quiet strength of compassion, reciprocity, and humility.

To live this way is to awaken

the Five Core Human Characteristics of Fakafekauaga,

our ancestral compass for right relationship:

• To live with Matutakiaga — to recognise that everything is connected,

  to relate deeply, and to think and act in ways that honour systems and their evolution.

  
  

• To ground ourselves in Mahuiga — living through values,

  guided by ancestral wisdom and the richness of lived experience.

  
  

• To serve with Fakalofa — to show love, compassion, and empathy,

  not as soft qualities, but as strong foundations for how we show up.

  
  

• To practice Fakamokoi — the ethic of reciprocity, where we give freely and forget,

  but receive with gratitude and always remember.

  
  

• And to move through time with Matohiaga — carrying the stories

  of those who came before, living fully in the present, and holding responsibility for the generations to come.

  
  

These are not ideas to admire.

They are daily disciplines of how we walk, speak, and serve.

A different kind of world

Imagine a village, a workplace, a city

where people greet each other with Fakalofa,

where kindness is instinctive and help is offered before it is asked for.

Imagine decision-making circles that listen before they speak,

that place relationship before transaction

and long-term planetary well-being before short-term gain.

Imagine organisations guided by Servantship Teams

where roles are defined not by authority but by contribution.

The Matutakiaga weaves systems together,

the Fakalofa connects hearts and holds care,

the Fakamokoi ensures the flow of reciprocity.

In such a world leadership becomes less about being followed

and more about walking beside one another.

Serving the planet

Fakafekauaga extends beyond human service.

It includes our covenant with the land, the ocean, and the winds.

The land, sea and environment is not our resource; it is our relative, out tupuna.

To serve it is to live harmony.

To plant, to protect, to restore.

To choose what sustains life rather than what extracts it.

Imagine forests breathing freely again,

oceans alive and generous,

ecosystems in balance

because we remembered our sacred role as guardians.

This is Mahuiga and Matohiaga in motion,

ancestral wisdom guiding our handsfor the sake of generations yet unborn.

The evolution we need

The shift to a world of Fakafekauaga will not be easy.

It asks us to unlearn much of what we have been taught,

that success is individual, that growth is endless,

that leadership means control.

But change is like the seasons, inevitable and renewing.

As the caterpillar yields to stillness to become a butterfly,

we too must yield to evolution.

To serve is to evolve.

To serve is to remember who we truly are.

A Call to Re-Imagine

“Ala tau mata moe kitia…”

Now open your eyes and see.

See that this dream is not distant.

It begins with one act of care,

one conversation held with kindness,

one choice made in service of life.

Learn more about our approach at fakafekauagacatalyst.com

Falalahemotu Makapatama Author, Leveki (steward and guardian) and Co-Founder, FakaFekauaga Catalyst (FFC)

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