Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III

He was fatally shot by New Zealand police during a peaceful Mau procession in Apia on 28 December 1929, in what became known as Black Saturday.

[1] In 1924 Tamasese was banished to Savai'i by Administrator George Spafford Richardson for failing to remove a hibiscus hedge from his land.

[4] When Olaf Frederick Nelson formed the Mau, Tamasese joined, and in 1927 appeared before a commission of inquiry in Apia and argued for Samoan self-government.

[9][10][6]: 109 In September 1928 he refused to pay taxes to the colonial administration,[11] which resulted in another failed attempt to arrest him in early November.

[6]: 139  A brawl broke out when the police attempted to arrest a man in the procession, and they began firing into the crowd with revolvers.

[6]: 157 His tomb, constructed of black stones in a tier, is situated in Lepea village beside the main road and 5 minutes from Apia.

Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III in front of the octagonal Mau office in Vaimoso village, near Apia , 1929. (Photograph by Alfred James Tattersall )
Mau carrying the coffin of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III. Standing to the right wearing a single white stripe on his lava-lava , the Mau uniform, is Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinuʻu I , who later became the President of the Mau.