TOKELAU

After watching Tuesday’s Tagata Pasifika video of Olohega and listening to the discussion in class, I was intrigued to learn more about the Tokelau islands so I did some online research. Here are two great sites that I found: Canoe Tokelau and Pacific Island Travel.

“Tokelau” is a Polynesian word meaning “north wind.” Before Tokelau was created there were the independent atolls of Fakaofu, Atafu, and Nukunonu. For those, like me, who didn’t know what an atoll was, an atoll is an island made up of a ring-shaped coral reef that surrounds a lagoon. Then in the 18th century, Fakaofu conquered Atafu and Nukunonu in the Tokelau wars—thus establishing the creation of the Tokelau islands. In 1765, the Europeans made its first appearance in Atafu and missionaries soon followed thereafter. Catholic Samoans traveled to Nukunonu, while Protestant Samoans targeted the people of Atafu. The two groups later battled to win the hearts of people in Fakaofu. The population of the atolls started on a downward spiral when Peruvian slave traders came to seize people and death tolls hit high numbers as diseases took lives. The islands were then annexed by Britain in 1889 and in1925, New Zealand took over its administration to include them in its territorial boundaries.

In the case of Olohega, it is culturally and geographically the 4th atoll of Tokelau, but because of complicated political reasons, it is considered a part of American Samoa. The story goes that the first European discoverer of the island was Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who named it de Quiros’ Island. It was left untouched for 2 decades until Captain W.C. Swains visited the island thinking he was the first to be there. He named it Swains Island. However, another man by the name of Captain Turnbull discovered the island thinking he was the first also. The captain then sold the island to an American Eli Hutchinson Jennings Sr. who claimed the island with an American flag. The Tokelauan government attempted to get rid of these “intruders” by threatening war on U.S.

Fortunately for the survival of its culture, New Zealand administered from afar and left the islands to isolation (I mean, the only way to travel to Tokelau is from Apia, Samoa on a fishing boat and that is worth more than a couple of days journey). Despite foreign influence, Tokelauans were still able to maintain its Tokelauan way of life – Faka Tokelau (we learned from our previous study of Fakaleitis and fakafefine that faka means “way of”). Each atoll has one village condensed on its highest island. Although separated by water and lack of land mass, the villages have close community ties with each other. They often competed in fishing, sports, dancing, and songs.

In light of our discussion about the Olohega conflict, I'd like to bring to point that the people of Olohega speak a slightly different dialect than the Standard Tokelauan. The Olohega Tokelauan language is more Samoan sounding. The Tokelauan language is a Polynesian language closely related to Tuvaluan and Samoan. The total number of speakers of Tokelauan is estimated to be approximately 4,000, including those living in American Sāmoa, New Zealand, and the United States. However, because of its contact with New Zealand, most Tokelauans speak some English. It is even taught as a second-language in schools.