Niutao
Encyclopedia
Niutao is a reef
island in the northern part of Tuvalu
. It is one of the nine districts (islands) of Tuvalu, and one of the three who consist of only one island, not counting the three islets inside the closed lagoon. Niutao has a population of 663 (2002 census).
, a post office, and three wells. A gravel road rings the island to connect the graveyard, half mile (800 m) counter clockwise from the village, and clockwise a quarter of a mile (400 m) to the hospital. The island is somewhat a horizontal oval which has a length of about one mile (1.6 km). Vegetation is abundant but of very limited variety. Main food staples are pulaka
(a giant taro) grown in the pits, along with breadfruit, coconut and pandanus. A fringing reef
surrounds the whole island, which makes local fishing and transport into and out of the island difficult.
an visitors to Niutao:
In 1949, people from overpopulated Niutao settled on hitherto uninhabited Niulakita
.
Official sources of the 2002 census
of population, list the main village of Kulia (pop. 224) and the village of Teava (pop. 439).
Niutao is part of Polynesia with the Niutaoans believed to have come from Samoa
and Tonga
some 3,000 years ago. As Niutao is close to the islands of Kiribati
, there is understood to be frequent interaction with people from those islands.
Niutao is part of a distinct linguistic area of Tuvalu, that includes the islands of Nanumea
and Nanumaga as well.
) to visit Niutao, Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) solve The 'Mystery' of Gran Cocal and identify Francisco Antonio Mourelle
as sailing past Niutao on May 5, 1781. Laumua Kofe (1983) accepts Chambers and Munro's conclusions, with Kofe describing Mourelle's ship La Princeas, waiting beyond the reef, with Nuitaoans coming out in canoes, bringing some coconuts with them. La Princeas was short of supplies but Mourelle was forced to sail on — naming Niutao El Gran Cocal ('The Great Coconut Plantation').
The next European recorded as sighting Niutao was Obed Starbuck
, a whaling captain, who visited Niutao on the Loper in 1825, naming it 'Loper Island'.
The Reverend A. W. Murray of the London Missionary Society
) is the first Christian missionary to visit in 1866. Murray reported that a blackbirder
(a slave ship seeking to kidnap workers to mine the guano
deposits on the Chincha Islands
in Peru) had called but no islanders were taken by the blackbirders
because of the actions of McKenzie, the resident trader. In 1870, Tapu and Sione, two teachers from the Samoa Fono Tele (General Assembly of Samoan Churches) were delivered to Niutao by the Reverend J. Whitmee.
Navy ships known to have visited Niutao in the 19th century are: HMS Basilisk
, Captain J. Moresby (July 1872); HMS Emerald
, Captain Maxwell (1881); and HMS Royalist
, Captain Davis (1892).
Captain Davis of the H.M.S. Royalist, reported Niutao as exporting about 50 tons of copra
each year — in a good season. Palagi
copra traders know to have been resident on Niutao are: Charlie Douglas (1850's) McKenzie (c. 1866); George Winchcombe (c. 1880); George Westbrook (1880's); Jack O'Brien (c. 1880's) Jack Buckland
(c. 1892); and Fred Whibley
(May/June 1898 to c. 1909).
was in Sydney, Australian in April 1890, looking for a ship to travel into the central Pacific. Robert Louis Stevenson
, his wife Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, and her son Lloyd Osbourne
sailed on the Janet Nicoll. On 29 May to 2 June 1890 the Janet Nicoll anchored off Niutao to take on copra
. An account of the voyage was written by Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson and published under the title The Cruise of the Janet Nichol. A passenger on the ship was Jack Buckland
, who later returned to Niutao to be the resident copra trader.
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
island in the northern part of Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...
. It is one of the nine districts (islands) of Tuvalu, and one of the three who consist of only one island, not counting the three islets inside the closed lagoon. Niutao has a population of 663 (2002 census).
Geography
There are two lakes (ponds or lagoons), which are brackish to saline. The larger has three islands and a dam. There are three wells from which fresher water sits in a "lens" above the salt water that leeched in through the coral. Older maps show only village is Tuapa (with the neighbourhood of Angafoulua). The main village is Kulia (pop. 224); another village is Teava (pop. 439). There is a maneapa (community hall), Uepele Primary School, a church of the London Missionary SocietyLondon Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
, a post office, and three wells. A gravel road rings the island to connect the graveyard, half mile (800 m) counter clockwise from the village, and clockwise a quarter of a mile (400 m) to the hospital. The island is somewhat a horizontal oval which has a length of about one mile (1.6 km). Vegetation is abundant but of very limited variety. Main food staples are pulaka
Pulaka
Pulaka , or swamp taro, is a crop grown in Oceania and an important source of carbohydrates for the area's inhabitants. It is a "swamp crop" similar to taro, but "with bigger leaves and larger, coarser roots." Pulaka roots need to be cooked for hours to reduce toxicity in the corms, but are rich...
(a giant taro) grown in the pits, along with breadfruit, coconut and pandanus. A fringing reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
surrounds the whole island, which makes local fishing and transport into and out of the island difficult.
Demographics
Newton (1967) estimates that the early 19th century population of Niutao was about 450 people, with these estimates being derived from reports of EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an visitors to Niutao:
| Murray 1866 | Whitmee 1870 | Moresby 1872 | Gill 1872 | Census 1963 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 700 | 360 | 417 | 417 | 797 |
| Probable overestimate | 100 on other islands | |||
| Missionary visitor | Missionary visitor | Captain J. Moresby, H.M.S. Basilisk | Missionary visitor |
In 1949, people from overpopulated Niutao settled on hitherto uninhabited Niulakita
Niulakita
Niulakita is the southernmost reef island, which is a district of Tuvalu, and the name of the only village on this island. The junior school is Lotoalofa Primary School.-Geographical features:...
.
Official sources of the 2002 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of population, list the main village of Kulia (pop. 224) and the village of Teava (pop. 439).
History
The story of the people who first inhabited Niutao begins with "The first inhabitants of Niutao were half spirit and half human beings who lived at Mulitefao. Their leader was Kulu who took the form of a woman. The first human settlers came from Samoa in a canoe captained by a man called Mataika. He settled at Tamana on the eastern side of the island, where winds swept the spray of the surf over the reef."Niutao is part of Polynesia with the Niutaoans believed to have come from Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
and Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
some 3,000 years ago. As Niutao is close to the islands of Kiribati
Kiribati
Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...
, there is understood to be frequent interaction with people from those islands.
Niutao is part of a distinct linguistic area of Tuvalu, that includes the islands of Nanumea
Nanumea
Nanumea is the northwesternmost atoll in the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu, a group of nine coral atolls and islands spread over about four hundred miles of Pacific Ocean just south of the equator and west of the International Date Line.-Geography:...
and Nanumaga as well.
European contact
There has been some debate as to the first European (PalagiPalagi
Palagi or papaalagi is a term in Samoan culture of uncertain meaning, but sometimes used to describe foreigners or anything that does not 'belong' to Samoan culture...
) to visit Niutao, Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) solve The 'Mystery' of Gran Cocal and identify Francisco Antonio Mourelle
Francisco Antonio Mourelle
Francisco Antonio Mourelle de la Rúa was a Galician naval officer and explorer serving the Spanish crown. He was born in 1750 at San Adrián de Corme , near La Coruña, Galicia.-1775 voyage:...
as sailing past Niutao on May 5, 1781. Laumua Kofe (1983) accepts Chambers and Munro's conclusions, with Kofe describing Mourelle's ship La Princeas, waiting beyond the reef, with Nuitaoans coming out in canoes, bringing some coconuts with them. La Princeas was short of supplies but Mourelle was forced to sail on — naming Niutao El Gran Cocal ('The Great Coconut Plantation').
The next European recorded as sighting Niutao was Obed Starbuck
Starbuck (whaling family)
The Starbuck family were a group of whalers operating out of Nantucket, Massachusetts from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Some members of the family gained wider exposure due to their discovery of various islands in the Pacific Ocean....
, a whaling captain, who visited Niutao on the Loper in 1825, naming it 'Loper Island'.
The Reverend A. W. Murray of the London Missionary Society
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
) is the first Christian missionary to visit in 1866. Murray reported that a blackbirder
Blackbirding
Blackbirding is a term that refers to recruitment of people through trickery and kidnappings to work as labourers. From the 1860s blackbirding ships were engaged in seeking workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru...
(a slave ship seeking to kidnap workers to mine the guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
deposits on the Chincha Islands
Chincha Islands
The Chincha Islands are a group of three small islands 21 km off the southwest coast of Peru, to which they belong, near the town of Pisco,...
in Peru) had called but no islanders were taken by the blackbirders
Blackbirding
Blackbirding is a term that refers to recruitment of people through trickery and kidnappings to work as labourers. From the 1860s blackbirding ships were engaged in seeking workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru...
because of the actions of McKenzie, the resident trader. In 1870, Tapu and Sione, two teachers from the Samoa Fono Tele (General Assembly of Samoan Churches) were delivered to Niutao by the Reverend J. Whitmee.
Navy ships known to have visited Niutao in the 19th century are: HMS Basilisk
HMS Basilisk (1848)
HMS Basilisk was a first-class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 22 August 1848.-Propulsion trials:She participated in 1849 in trials in the English Channel with the screw sloop HMS Niger...
, Captain J. Moresby (July 1872); HMS Emerald
HMS Emerald (1876)
HMS Emerald was a corvette, of the Royal Navy, built at the Pembroke Dockyard and launched on 18 Ausgust 1876.She commenced service on the Australia Station in September 1878. She escorted Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of New Zealand from Sydney to Auckland in May 1879...
, Captain Maxwell (1881); and HMS Royalist
HMS Royalist (1883)
HMS Royalist was an Satellite-class composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 7 March 1883. She was later reclassified as a corvette. Initially on service with the Cape of Good Hope Station, she commenced service on the Australia Station in May 1888....
, Captain Davis (1892).
Captain Davis of the H.M.S. Royalist, reported Niutao as exporting about 50 tons of copra
Copra
Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...
each year — in a good season. Palagi
Palagi
Palagi or papaalagi is a term in Samoan culture of uncertain meaning, but sometimes used to describe foreigners or anything that does not 'belong' to Samoan culture...
copra traders know to have been resident on Niutao are: Charlie Douglas (1850's) McKenzie (c. 1866); George Winchcombe (c. 1880); George Westbrook (1880's); Jack O'Brien (c. 1880's) Jack Buckland
Jack Buckland
John Wilberforce Buckland , also known as ‘Tin Jack’, was a remittance man who lived in the South Pacific in the late 19th century. He travelled with Robert Louis Stevenson and his stories of life as an island trader became the inspiration for the character of Tommy Hadden in The Wrecker...
(c. 1892); and Fred Whibley
Fred Whibley
Fred Whibley abandoned a career in a London bank to escape from the constraints and social expectations of respectability in the Victorian era...
(May/June 1898 to c. 1909).
The Cruise of the Janet Nicholl
The Janet Nicoll was a trading steamer owned by Henderson and Macfarlane of Auckland, New Zealand, which operated between Sydney, Auckland and into the central Pacific. Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
was in Sydney, Australian in April 1890, looking for a ship to travel into the central Pacific. Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, his wife Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, and her son Lloyd Osbourne
Lloyd Osbourne
Samuel Lloyd Osbourne was an American author and the stepson of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson with whom he would co-author three books and provide input and ideas on others.-Early life:...
sailed on the Janet Nicoll. On 29 May to 2 June 1890 the Janet Nicoll anchored off Niutao to take on copra
Copra
Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...
. An account of the voyage was written by Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson and published under the title The Cruise of the Janet Nichol. A passenger on the ship was Jack Buckland
Jack Buckland
John Wilberforce Buckland , also known as ‘Tin Jack’, was a remittance man who lived in the South Pacific in the late 19th century. He travelled with Robert Louis Stevenson and his stories of life as an island trader became the inspiration for the character of Tommy Hadden in The Wrecker...
, who later returned to Niutao to be the resident copra trader.
Notable local people
- Sir Tomu SioneTomu SioneSir Tomu Malaefone Sione, GCMG, OBE, is a political figure from the Pacific nation of Tuvalu.-Governor-General:Sione served as Governor-General of Tuvalu from 1993–1994, as the representative of HM Queen Elizabeth II, who is Tuvalu's head of state....
, former Governor General of Tuvalu, and subsequently Speaker of the Parliament of TuvaluParliament of TuvaluThe Parliament of Tuvalu is the unicameral national legislature in Tuvalu.-History and political culture:...
, and represented the constituency in the Parliament until the Tuvaluan general election, 2010Tuvaluan general election, 2010A parliamentary election was held in Tuvalu on 16 September 2010.Voters elected fifteen members of the Parliament to a four-year term. All candidates were independents, as there are no political parties in the country. Ten out of the fifteen incumbent members were re-elected. The remaining five...
. - Tavau TeiiTavau Teii-Background:Teii is from Niutao and he stood for the Parliament of Tuvalu in, and was elected from, the constituency of Niutao.-Deputy Prime Minister of Tuvalu:He was Deputy Prime Minister of Tuvalu in the Government of Apisai Ielemia...
, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Natural Resources in the Government of Tuvalu, and represented the constituency in the Parliament until the Tuvaluan general election, 2010Tuvaluan general election, 2010A parliamentary election was held in Tuvalu on 16 September 2010.Voters elected fifteen members of the Parliament to a four-year term. All candidates were independents, as there are no political parties in the country. Ten out of the fifteen incumbent members were re-elected. The remaining five...
.