Longest serving Miss Samoa humbled by three years of growth and learning

By Talaia Mika

APIA, SAMOA – 10 SEPTEMBER 2022: The outgoing Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Islands, Fonoifafo Nancy McFarland-Seumanu, is finally passing on the crown to the next Miss Samoa tonight.

The 23-year-old reflects on the experience as exhilarating and unexpected as she was obliged to uphold those roles and crowns for three years straight when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

For that she will forever be the “Longest serving Miss Samoa, Miss Samoa New Zealand, and Miss Pacific Islands”.

Fono shared that she stumbled on various obstacles having to readjust her own goals, studies and dreams to her responsibilities as Miss Samoa and had poured so much growth in her life as a young Samoan lady in so many aspects.

“Learning is one highlight. Like Tourism, it’s something I knew nothing about until I became Miss Samoa and because of that, I’m now advocating twice as hard for people to come to Samoa,” she added.

When Covid struck, she used her status as a nurse and role as Miss Samoa to push for vaccination against the antivax campaign.

“I feel very humbled, since the lead up to this pageant, it’s a comment thrown to me all the time like “you’re the longest serving, you’re this and that” and it takes me back a bit and reminds me just how far I’ve come on this journey and honestly when I look back at it from when I first started, I’ve grown so much in this journey and it’s extremely humbling to be able to have held that title.”

However, she is ready and excited to move on to the next chapter of her life.

Moving forward means plans to further her studies and advancing her career path as well as spending more time with families and friends which she missed out in three years.

Fono is excited and looking forward to the Miss Samoa Pageant 2022 and to see what the 2022 contestants will showcase and mainly to finally pass on the crown to the next Miss Samoa.

One of the messages she relayed for the Vodafone Miss Samoa contestants this year is to have that maturity and determination to make a difference.

“Miss Samoa isn’t just a beauty pageant, it’s a pageant with a platform and it was up to me whether I was going to utilize that platform to make a difference in areas that I was passionate about like Health or whether I would just take what the normal expectation was,” she said.

At age 23 when she first crowned Miss Samoa in 2019, Seumanu was already a foster mum to five children, a nurse and a musician at church.

She will be handing over her crown to the next Miss Samoa tonight.