The 9/11 attacks on the United States claimed thousands of lives, stunned the world, and triggered responses that continue to shape global politics, security, and public life today.

A series of coordinated attacks in the United States killed almost 3000 people, with planes hijacked and crashing in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and most prominently, the World Trade Center in New York City.

While the world watched in horror at the unfolding events, the memories of 9/11 are etched in the minds of those who survived or witnessed the attacks. That day is especially personal for Samoan Papali’i Mele Maualaivao who was living in Brooklyn at the time.

Papali’i, who is now living in Samoa and championing women through her work with United Nations Women, still vividly recalls one thing above all — the smell.

Speaking to Pacific Waves Papali’i said she first saw the smoke billowing from one of the Twin Towers on television that morning, believing a helicopter had crashed into the building. However, the situation became more devastating when both towers had collapsed, sending a vast cloud of ash and debris that engulfed the streets of New York.

The debris reached Brooklyn, right through the neighbourhood and onto the home Papali’i lived in.

“I remember seeing it raining down in my house, out around my house,” she said.

Incinerated remains
“So, you would see little bits of paper that were obviously from offices, ash and there was just the smell of like incineration. At the time, we didn’t realise that we were smelling, you know, the incinerated remains of everybody who’d been trapped in that building.”

Papali’i said in the days after the attacks, the weight of the tragedy started to set in and she had set off to donate blood at the Red Cross but was told that no bodies had yet been pulled from the wreckage. New York became a surreal landscape of profound grief, thick dust and heightened security.

The aftermath of September 11 dominated news coverage, with Papali’i recalling seeing people interviewed on television making desperate appeals for information about their missing loved ones.

“This is before social media was really big right. So on the news every day, there’d be somebody being interviewed saying, ‘have you seen my mother?’ ‘have you seen my father?’ ‘have you seen my brother?’ ‘have you seen my sister?’ and there were people putting up posters up everywhere of relatives in hopes that some way or some how they were still alive.”

Sadly, Papali’i knew of two individuals who died in the building and said the loss of lives had affected everybody even if they had not personally lost a close family member.

Twenty-five years later, Papali’i has not visited the memorial site despite making trips to New York since and said she doesn’t know if she’ll ever stop by as she feels the space is meant for families of those who died.

The events surrounding 9/11 has given Papali’i a greater appreciation of community and service which has continued on in her work in Samoa.

Photos captured by John Celardo, former archivist at the National Archives
Photos captured by John Celardo, former archivist at the National Archives branch in New York City on September 11, 2001. Image: National Archives Foundation

Sense of unity
Living in a city of millions where people usually kept to themselves, the tragedy created an unexpected sense of unity. Papali’i said she now recognises the bravery of first responders, firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers who put themselves in dangerous situations to save others.

Her hope is that remembering the loss brought on by 9/11 will encourage people to be kinder instead of using it as fuel to hate.

“I hope people realise that these moments, while they can be really scary and horrific and because of social media, you have so many more images of what’s occurred. I hope it causes one to be kinder in just your everyday life.”

Mele’s experience was one of the Pacific connections to the attacks.

Two New Zealanders were among those killed — Auckland-born environmental lawyer Alan Beaven, who was aboard Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania, and US-born John Lozowsky, a dual New Zealand citizen who worked in New Zealand during the 1990s, died in the collapse of the World Trade Center.

Their names are among the nearly 3000 people remembered at the 9/11 Memorial in New York.