Tuvalu
King Tide, The Sinking of Tuvalu
Tuvalu is one of the smallest and most remote countries on earth. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it can barely be seen on most maps. The country is in danger of disappearing beneath the waves. Not an Atlantis myth but the reality of this century. Plans for evacuation are being made right now. Tuvalu is destined to become one of earth’s first nations to be washed away due to the effect of global warming, making the Tuvaluans the first complete nation of climate refugees, banned from their home-islands, their culture and identity taken away. Beyond the appearance of an easygoing life, the threat to Tuvalu’s future is an obvious danger that everyone has been forced to recognize. The highest point of Tuvalu is only four and a half meters above sea level. The average elevation is not even two. But still, in spite of the evidence, many people in Tuvalu don’t believe they will be forced to leave, and point to their bibles for proof. In the deeply Christian country, great faith is placed in the words of Genesis, which says that rainbows are proof God is keeping his covenant made with Noah to never again flood the earth. What is going to happen to a nation without their home islands to anchor what is left of their culture?
Tuvalu (
i/tuːˈvɑːluː/ too-vah-loo or /ˈtuːvəluː/ too-və-loo), formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out from 6° to 10° south.[3] Tuvalu’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers an oceanic area of approximately 900,000 km2. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati,Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Its population of 11,200 makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world, with only the Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. In terms of physical land size, at just 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi) Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City at 0.44 km2 (0.17 sq mi), Monaco at 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi), and Nauru at 21 km2(8.1 sq mi).
The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesian people. In 1568 Spanish navigatorÁlvaro de Mendaña sailed through the islands and is understood to have sighted Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice’s Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay (1812–1876). The islands came under Britain’s sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when the Ellice Islands were declared a British protectorate by Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS Curacoa, between 9 and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916 as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT), and later as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islandscolony from 1916 to 1974.
A referendum was held in December 1974 to determine whether the Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands should each have their own administration. As a consequence of the referendum, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976 and the separate British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into existence. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1 October 1978. On 5 September 2000, Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations.
History of Tuvalu – Pre-History
The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians. Therefore the origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding the spread of humans out of Southeast Asia, from Taiwan, via Melanesia and across the Pacific islands to create Polynesia. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands including Tonga and Samoa. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means “eight standing together” in Tuvaluan. Possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation for thousands of years.
Tuvaluan man in traditional costume drawn by Alfred Agate in 1841 during the United States Exploring Expedition.
An important creation myth of the islands of Tuvalu is the story of the Eel and the Flounder; the Flounder reminding the Tuvaluans of the flat atolls. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island. On Niutao, Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa; whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga.
Early Contacts with other Cultures
Tuvalu was first sighted by Europeans on 16 January 1568 during the voyage of Álvaro de Mandaña from Spain who is understood to have sighted the island of Nui, and charted it as Isla de Jesús (Spanish for “Island of Jesus”) because it was discovered on the day following the feast of the Holy Name. Mendaña made contact with the islanders but was unable to land. During Mendaña’s second voyage across the Pacific he passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595, which atoll he named La Solitaria.
Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of HMS Dolphin. Byron charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) identify Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúasailed past on 5 May 1781, thus solving what Europeans had called The Mystery of Gran Cocal. Mourelle’s map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal (‘The Great Coconut Plantation’); however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain. Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century.
The next European to visit was Arent Schuyler de Peyster, of New York, captain of the armed brigantine or privateer Rebecca, sailing under British colours, which passed through the southern Tuvaluan waters in May 1819; de Peyster sighted Nukufetau and Funafuti, which he named Ellice’s Island after an English Politician, Edward Ellice, the Member of Parliament for Coventry and the owner of the Rebecca’s cargo.
In 1820 the Russian explorer Mikhail Lazarev visited Nukufetau as commander of the Mirny. Louis Isidore Duperrey, captain ofLa Coquille, sailed past Nanumanga in May 1824 during a circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825).
Whalers began roving the Pacific, although visiting Tuvalu only infrequently because of the difficulties of landing on the atolls. Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II has been identified as the first whaler to hunt the waters around Tuvalu. In November 1821 he bartered coconuts from the people of Nukulaelae and also visited Niulakita. A shore camp was established on Sakalua islet of Nukufetau, where they used coal to melt down the whale blubber.
A man from the Nukufetauatoll, drawn by Alfred Agate 1841.
For less than a year between 1862–63, Peruvian ships, engaged in what became to be called the “blackbirding” trade, combed the smaller islands of Polynesia from Easter Island in the eastern Pacific to Tuvalu and the southern atolls of the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), seeking recruits to fill the extreme labour shortage in Peru. While some islanders were voluntary recruits the “blackbirders” were notorious for enticing islanders on to ships with tricks, such as pretending to be Christian missionaries, as well as kidnapping islanders at gun point. The Rev. A. W. Murray, the earliest European missionary in Tuvalu, reported that in 1863 about 170 people were taken from Funafuti and about 250 were taken from Nukulaelae as there were fewer than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae.
Christianity first came to Tuvalu in 1861 when Elekana, a deacon of a Congregational church in Manihiki, Cook Islands became caught in a storm and drifted for 8 weeks before landing at Nukulaelae on 10 May 1861. Elekana began proselytising Christianity. He was trained at Malua Theological College, a London Missionary Society school in Samoa, before beginning his work in establishing the Church of Tuvalu. In 1865 the Rev. A. W. Murray of the London Missionary Society – a Protestant congregationalist missionary society – arrived as the first European missionary where he too proselytized among the inhabitants of Tuvalu. By 1878 Protestantism was well established with preachers on each island. In the later 19th Century and early 20th century the ministers of what became the Church of Tuvalu were predominantly Samoans, who influenced the development of the Tuvaluan language and the music of Tuvalu.
Trading Firms and Traders
Trading companies became active in Tuvalu in the mid-nineteenth century; the trading companies engaged palagi traders who lived on the islands. John (also known as Jack) O’Brien was the first European to settle in Tuvalu, he became a trader on Funafuti in the 1850s. He married Salai, the daughter of the paramount chief of Funafuti. Louis Becke, who later found success as a writer, was a trader on Nanumanga from April 1880 until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone. He then became a trader on Nukufetau. In 1892, Captain Davis of the HMS Royalist, reported on trading activities and traders on each of the islands visited. Captain Davis identified the following traders in the Ellice Group: Edmund Duffy (Nanumea); Jack Buckland (Niutao); Harry Nitz (Vaitupu); John (also known as Jack) O’Brien (Funafuti); Alfred Restieaux and Emile Fenisot (Nukufetau); and Martin Kleis (Nui). During this time, the greatest number of palagi traders lived on the atolls, acting as agents for the trading companies. Some islands would have competing traders while dryer islands might only have a single trader.
In the later 1890s and into first decade of the 20th century, structural changes occurred in the operation of the Pacific trading companies; trading companies moved from a practice of having traders resident on each island to instead becoming a business operation where the supercargo (the cargo manager of a trading ship) would deal directly with the islanders when a ship visited an island. From 1900 the numbers of palagi traders in Tuvalu declined with the last of the palagi traders being Fred Whibley on Niutao and Alfred Restieaux on Nukufetau. By 1909 there were no more resident palagi traders representing the trading companies, although both Whibley and Restieaux remained in the islands until their deaths.
Scientific Expeditions and Travellers
Woman on Funafuti, taken by Harry Clifford Fassett (1900)
The United States Exploring Expedition under Charles Wilkes visited Funafuti, Nukufetau and Vaitupu in 1841. During this expedition Alfred Thomas Agate, engraver and illustrator, recorded the dress and tattoo patterns of the men of Nukufetau.
In 1890 Robert Louis Stevenson, his wife Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson and her son Lloyd Osbourne sailed on the Janet Nicoll, a trading steamer owned by Henderson and Macfarlane of Auckland, New Zealand, which operated between Sydney and Auckland and into the central Pacific. The Janet Nicoll visited Tuvalu; while Fanny records that they made landfall at Funafuti, Niutao and Nanumea, Jane Resture suggests that it was more likely they landed at Nukufetau rather than Funafuti. An account of this voyage was written by Fanny Stevenson and published under the title The Cruise of the Janet Nichol, together with photographs taken by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.
In 1894 Count Rudolf Festetics de Tolna, his wife Eila (née Haggin) and her daughter Blanche Haggin visited Funafuti aboard the yacht Le Tolna. The Count spent several days photographing men and woman on Funafuti.
The boreholes on Funafuti, at the site now called David’s Drill, are the result of drilling conducted by the Royal Society of London for the purpose of investigating the formation of coral reefs to determine whether traces of shallow water organisms could be found at depth in the coral of Pacific atolls. This investigation followed the work on the structure and distribution of coral reefs conducted by Charles Darwin in the Pacific. Drilling occurred in 1896, 1897 and 1898. Professor Edgeworth David of the University of Sydney was a member of the 1896 “Funafuti Coral Reef Boring Expedition of the Royal Society”, under Professor William Sollas and lead the expedition in 1897. Photographers on these trips recorded people, communities, and scenes at Funafuti. Charles Hedley, a naturalist at the Australian Museum, accompanied the 1896 expedition and during his stay on Funafuti collected Invertebrate and Ethnological objects. The descriptions of these were published in Memoir III of the Australian Museum Sydney between 1896 and 1900. Hedley also wrote the General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti, The Ethnology of Funafuti, and The Mollusca of Funafuti. Edgar Waite was also part of the 1896 expedition and published an account of The mammals, reptiles, and fishes of Funafuti. William Rainbow described the spiders and insects collected at Funafuti in The insect fauna of Funafuti.
Harry Clifford Fassett, captain’s clerk and photographer, recorded people, communities and scenes at Funafuti in 1900 during a visit of USFC Albatross when the United States Fish Commission was investigating the formation of coral reefs on Pacific atolls.
