ANSWER: The word derived from the many "Missionary" who first came to Pacific islands. After the Massacre Bay 1787 where the French La' Persoe' Expedition found themselves at a great loss, beaten to a quarter of their number by the Eastern Samoans, there was little official contact. This Affray was due to a French Sailor Lt. De Bougainvile attempting to coerce a Samoan woman aboard one of their ships for pleasure and it led to the French crews being left adrift and cut down to a skeleton crew of around 20 for several ships. Until the 1830s (around 50 years later) the only foreigners allowed after the French Affray were people of God - or Missionary, first in Western Samoa. By that time the Samoan generation who had killed the French at 'Massacre Bay' were passed away.
The Christian Missionary societies formed relations gradually with high Samoan ranks and Council members. Wikipedia has written the word Palagi means 'Gates of Heaven' and like everything else in Wikipedia, it is quite off. Translation wise the words are somewhat correct but the word Palagi simply describes the type of work and business the new accepted foreigners dealt in, which was a humble and noble religious path and the entrance to God's Heaven.
An example would be calling a foreign people "The Fishermen" if that were their main trade. The French before the Massacre Bay Affray called the Samoans "The Navigators Isles" for their sea-faring skills and then afterwards losing men and ships at Massacre Bay labeled Samoans the Mongols of the Sea and a Barbarian people. Semantics and much of the meaning of the word Palagi or Palangi has changed overtime but it's origins were not a racial label or a superstitious holy one. It is now at times used to say Euro-Foreigner or Euro-Outsider (A person of European origin), sometimes it just means anyone Non-Samoan or Non-Polynesian. In areas of Polynesia like Aotearoa New Zealand and Western Samoa, foreign reputation changed considerably after events like The Maori Wars and the World Wars. The word does not translate into "White People" or have any connection with that description. The racial label of "white person" is a newer identity.
Posted in: The Ancient Tiki Answers Blog
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