A DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE TOKELAU ISLANDS

Abstract

The three islands of the Tokelau group lie approximately 300 miles north of Western Samoa. Although each lies well out of sight of the others, they may all be enclosed within a circle having a radius of less than 50 nautical miles. The evidence of linguistics, local tradition, and historical and ethnographic records all attest the cultural unity and distinctiveness of the native people. The islands are of atoll formation. There are no deep-water passes into the lagoons and, since the ocean margins of the barrier reefs shelve precipitously into deep water, ships must lie off the shores while cargo and passengers are transferred by canoe or small boat. On each island, the population is concentrated in a single village on the western lee shore on an islet close to a small natural pass which allows canoes to move between the lagoon and the open sea, On Atafu and Nukunonu the villages occupy parts of relatively large islets, while in Fakaofo the village covers the whole of a smaller islet which has been built up over the years and, in part, reclaimed from the reef and lagoon bed.(1) Neither local tradition nor historical records suggest that the population have ever lived outside these village areas on any permanent basis. New Zealand Government publications have consistently stated that Nukunonu is by far the largest atoll, having a land area of 1350 acres in comparison to 650 and 500 acres respectively for Fakaofo and Atafu. These figures all appear to derive from a report(2) which was made on the basis of a seven-day official visit to the islands in 1925, and it is likely that they are incorrect/3)