People

According to existing traditions the Tokelau Islands have been populated by two groups of people. The earlier people appear to have lived only on Atafu, Nukunono, and Olosenga Islands. All of this group, except a small number at Nukunono, were driven from their islands by a people who settled at Fakaofu. This later people conquered the entire group over a long period of years and absorbed the remnant group of earlier people of Nukunono.

Only the briefest recollection and tradition remains concerning the earlier population. They are believed by the present natives to have been a larger and taller people than themselves, but to have possessed a similar culture and language. The names of the earlier people and places are familiar Polynesian words: Malaelua, Lehotu, Atahumea (their name for Atafu), Pipi, Hekei, Maho, Nonu, and Letele. A surviving legend of the early people states that the first human couple were named Pipi, a man, and Hekei, a woman, who lived at Nukunono. The first high chief of this island was Talahao, whose name became the title of all the high chiefs who succeeded him.

The early people who lived on Olosenga were seen by the Spaniards who came upon the island in 1606. In the four accounts (23) written of the visit, repeated references are made to the light colored skin and red hair of many of the natives. Quiros (23) describes a young boy in detail:

Five natives came in a canoe, the middle one vigorously bailing the water out of the vessel. His red hair came down to the waist. He was white as regards color, beautifully shaped, the face aquiline and handsome, rather freckled and rosy, the eyes black and gracious, the forehead and eyebrows good, the nose, mouth, and lips well-proportioned with the teeth well-ordered and white.

A group of soldiers sent through the island to discover water came upon a woman and several children hiding in the bush. The woman appeared (23, p. 214) “graceful and sprightly, with neck and bosom and waist well formed, hair very red, long, and loose. She was extremely beautiful and pleasant to look upon, in color very white …” Quiros also speaks of a boy who came to them, who was “so beautiful and with such golden hair that to see him was as good as to see a painted angel.” Torquemada (23, p. 428), who received a first-hand account of the trip, writes, “They [the natives] were very white, more especially the women who, if properly dressed, would have advantages over the Spanish ladies.” Quiros (23, p. 215) speaks of “tresses of very golden hair, and delicately, finely woven bands, some black, others red and grey” which were found in the houses and give evidence of a number of people with red and golden hair.

Quiros (23, pp. 215–16) also writes his observations of the life and culture of this strange people:

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In the houses of the natives a great quantity of soft and very fine mats were found, and others larger and coarser. Fine cords strong and soft, which seemed of better flax than ours, and many mother-o'-pearl shells, one as large as an ordinary plate. Of these and other small shells they made, as were seen and collected here, knives, saws, chisels, punches, gouges, gimlets and fishhooks. Needles to sew their clothes and sails are made of the bones of some animals, also the adzes with which they dress timber. They found many dried oysters strung together and in some for eating there were small pearls. Certain white hairs were seen, which appeared to be those of an animal.

The land is divided among many owners and is planted with certain roots, which must form their bread¹. All the rest [of the island] is a large and thick palm grove, which is the chief sustenance of the natives. Of the wood and leaves they build and roof the houses, which are of four vertientes (the sloping sides of the roof), curiously and cleanly worked, each with a roof open behind, and all the floors covered and lined with mats, also made of palms; and of the more tender shoots they weave fine cloths, with which the men cover their loins, and the women their whole bodies.

The women wore fringed mat skirts and wound coconut leaves around their necks, leaving the tips hanging over their breasts. The men wore plaited mat breechcloths.

On the beach were double canoes, some 60 feet long, held together by poles lashed to the hulls. The canoes were decked and had lateen sails made of mats. Quiros estimated they would hold 50 persons.

The natives carried small weapons and thick lances, with points hardened in fire. They were adept in quarter-staff fighting, for one native parried the blows of a dozen or more Spaniards with a single stick and held them off for a good length of time until more men came and beat him to the ground.

The Spaniards found the natives possessed small dogs.

Between the time of Quiros' discovery of the island and the next reported visit by Europeans to the island in 1841, this population of Olosenga disappeared. The descendants of the second people of the islands, who came first to Fakaofu, now inhabit all the Tokelau islands (on Olosenga only as plantation laborers), and it is with their history and culture that the remainder of this study deals.