Tikopia is a

high island Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

in the southwestern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. It forms a part of the Melanesian nation state of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

but is culturally Polynesian. The first Europeans arrived on 22 April 1606 as part of the Spanish expedition of

Pedro Fernandes de Queirós Pedro Fernandes de Queirós ( es, Pedro Fernández de Quirós) (1563–1614) was a Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain. He is best known for his involvement with Spanish voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean, in particular the 1595–1 ...

Location and geography

Covering an area of , the island is the remnant of an

extinct volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

. Its highest point, Mt. Reani, reaches an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of above sea level. Lake Te Roto covers an old volcanic crater which is deep. Tikopia's location is relatively remote. It is sometimes grouped with the

Santa Cruz Islands The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the nation of Solomon Islands discovered by the Spaniards. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands ...

. Administratively, Tikopia belongs to

Temotu Province Temotu (or Te Motu, literally "the island" in Polynesian) is the easternmost province of Solomon Islands. The province was formerly known as Santa Cruz Islands Province. It consists, essentially, of two chains of islands which run parallel to ...

as the southernmost of the

. Some discussions of Tikopian society include its nearest neighbour, the even tinier island of Anuta.

History as a Polynesian outlier

While it is located in

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

, the people of Tikopia are culturally Polynesian. Their language, Tikopian, is a member of the Samoic branch of the

Polynesian languages The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austro ...

. The linguistic analysis indicates that Tikopia was colonized by seafaring Polynesians, mostly from the Ellice Islands (

Tuvalu Tuvalu ( or ; formerly known as the Ellice Islands) is an island country and microstate in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. Its islands are situated about midway between Hawaii and Australia. They lie east-nor ...

). The time frame of the migration is not precisely identified but is understood to be some time between the 10th century to the mid-13th century. The arrival of the voyagers in Anuta could have occurred later. The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and other islands in the central and south eastern Pacific. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the islands as

Polynesian navigation Polynesian navigation or Polynesian wayfinding was used for thousands of years to enable long voyages across thousands of kilometers of the open Pacific Ocean. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangl ...

skills are recognised to have allowed deliberate journeys on double-hull sailing canoes or

outrigger canoe Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They can range from small dugout canoes to large plank-built vessels. Outrigger ...

s. The voyagers moved into the Tuvaluan atolls as a stepping stone to migration into the Polynesian outlier communities in Melanesia and

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

. In Tikopian mythology Atua Fafine and Atua I Raropuka are creator gods and Atua I Kafika is the supreme sky god.

Population

The population of Tikopia is about 1,200, distributed among more than 20 villages mostly along the coast. The largest village is Matautu on the west coast (not to be confused with

Mata-Utu Mata Utu (; ʻUvean: Matāutu, ) is the capital city of Wallis and Futuna, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located on the island of Uvéa (Uvea), in the district of Hahake, of which it is also the capital. It is one of two ports in Wa ...

, the capital of

Wallis and Futuna Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands (; french: Wallis-et-Futuna or ', Fakauvea and Fakafutuna: '), is a French island collectivity in the South Pacific, situated between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji ...

). Historically, the tiny island has supported a high-density population of a thousand or so. Strict social controls over reproduction prevented further increase. Tikopians practice an intensive system of agriculture (which has been compared to

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...

), similar in principle to

forest gardening Forest gardening is a low-maintenance, sustainable, plant-based food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables which have yields directly us ...

and the gardens of the

New Guinea Highlands The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, is a long chain of mountain ranges on the island of New Guinea, including the island's tallest peak, Puncak Jaya , the highest mountain in Oceania. The range is home ...

. Their agricultural practices are strongly and consciously tied to the

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

. For example, around 1600, the people agreed to slaughter all pigs on the island, and substitute fishing, because the pigs were taking too much food that could be eaten by people. Tikopians have developed rituals and figurative constructions related to their fishing practices. Unlike the rapidly Westernizing society of much of the rest of Temotu Province, Tikopia society is little changed from ancient times. Its people take great pride in their customs, and see themselves as holding fast to their Polynesian traditions while they regard the

Melanesians Melanesians are the predominant and indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in a wide area from Indonesia's New Guinea to as far East as the islands of Vanuatu and Fiji. Most speak either one of the many languages of the Austronesian language f ...

around them to have lost most of theirs. The island is controlled by four chiefs (''ariki'') Kafika, Tafua, Taumako and Fangarere, with Kafika recognised as the

first among equals ''Primus inter pares'' is a Latin phrase meaning first among equals. It is typically used as an honorary title for someone who is formally equal to other members of their group but is accorded unofficial respect, traditionally owing to their se ...

. Tikopians have a highly developed culture with a strong Polynesian influence, including a complex social structure.

Field work on Tikopia by Raymond Firth

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

anthropologist

Raymond Firth Sir Raymond William Firth (25 March 1901 – 22 February 2002) was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies (social organization) is separated from the idealized rules of behaviou ...

, who lived on Tikopia in 1928 and 1929, detailed its social life. He showed how the society was divided geographically into two zones and was organized into four clans, headed by clan chiefs. At the core of social life was ''te paito'' – the house inherited from male (

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...

) ancestors, who were buried inside it. Relationships with the family grouping of one's mother (

matrilateral The term matrilateral describes kin (relatives) "on the mother's side". Social anthropologists have underlined that even where a social group demonstrates a strong emphasis on one or other line of inheritance (matrilineal or patrilineal), relativ ...

relations) were also very important. The relations between a mother's brother and his nephew had a sacred dimension: the uncle oversaw the passage of his nephew through life, in particular, officiating at his manhood ceremonies. Intricate economic and ritual links between ''paito'' houses and deference to the chiefs within the clan organization were key dimensions of island life. Raymond Firth, who did his post-graduate anthropological study under Bronislaw Malinowski in 1924, speculates about the ways

population control Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from ...

may have been achieved, including celibacy, warfare (including expulsion), infanticide and sea-voyaging (which claimed many youths). Firth's book, ''Tikopia Ritual and Belief'' (1967, London, George Allen & Unwin) remains an important source for the study of Tikopia culture.

Christianity

The Anglican

Melanesian Mission The Melanesian Mission is an Anglican missionary agency supporting the work of local Anglican churches in Melanesia. It was founded in 1849 by George Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand. History Bishop Selwyn's see was focused on New Zealand. ...

first made contact with Tikopia in 1858. A mission teacher was not allowed to settle on the island until 1907. Conversion to Christianity of the total population did not occur until the 1950s. Administratively, Tikopia is part of the

Anglican Church of Melanesia The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM), also known as the Church of the Province of Melanesia and the Church of Melanesia (COM), is a church of the Anglican Communion and includes nine dioceses in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledoni ...

Diocese of Temotu The Diocese of Temotu is one of the nine current dioceses of the Anglican Church of Melanesia, founded in 1981. Three of the diocese's six bishops have gone on to become archbishops of the province. Temotu Province is the easternmost province of th ...

. The introduction of Christianity resulted to the banning of traditional birth control, which had the consequence of a 50% increase of the population: 1,200 in 1920 to 1,800 in 1950. The increase in population resulted in migration to other places in the Solomon Islands, including in the settlement of Nukukaisi in

Makira The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands. It is third most populous island after Malaita and Guadalcanal, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020. ...

Shipwreck

On Tikopia in 1964, explorers found artefacts from the shipwreck of the expedition of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse.

Cyclone Zoe

Cyclone Zoe Severe Tropical Cyclone Zoe was the second-most intense tropical cyclone on record within the Southern Hemisphere and was the strongest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2002. The system was first noted on December 23, 2002, as a tropical depressi ...

in December 2002 devastated the vegetation and human settlements in Tikopia. Despite the extensive damage, no deaths were reported, as the islanders followed their traditions and sheltered in the caves in the higher ground. The narrow bank that separated the freshwater

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

from the sea was breached by the storm, resulting in the continuing contamination of the lagoon and the threatened death of the

sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is c ...

palms on which the islanders depend for survival. A remarkable international effort by "friends of" the island, including many yacht crews who had had contact with Tikopia over the decades, culminated in the construction in 2006 of a

gabion A gabion (from Italian ''gabbione'' meaning "big cage"; from Italian ''gabbia'' and Latin ''cavea'' meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road buildin ...

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

to seal the breach.

Cultural significance

Jared Diamond's book '' Collapse'' describes Tikopia as a success case in matching the challenges of sustainability, contrasting it with

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its ne ...

Tikopia in media

In 2009 a double canoe closely following the original design of the traditional Tikopia canoes was donated to the island, as well as to Tikopia's sister island Anuta, in order to give the islands their own independent sea transport. This canoe called 'Lapita Tikopia' and its sistership 'Lapita Anuta' were built in the Philippines in 2008 and sailed to Tikopia and Anuta in a 5 months voyage following the ancient migration route of the Lapita people into the Pacific. This voyage was called th
'Lapita Voyage'
with mor
information about the voyage here
Its original concept (by

Hanneke Boon Hanneke is a feminine given name of Dutch origin, and may refer to: *Hanneke Beaumont (born 1947), Dutch-born sculptor *Hanneke Canters (1969–2002), Dutch feminist philosopher and academic * Hanneke Cassel (born 1978), American folk musician *H ...

of James Wharram Designs) to donate such a canoe was first published in 2005 in a project calle
'A Voyaging Canoe for Tikopia'
in order to raise money for the building of the canoes. The project was filmed and is available as DVD. In 2013 a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

mother and father brought their two children and a nephew to Tikopia and lived there for 6 months. A film crew went along and a 13 episode children's series was made of the family experiences and stay, primarily focusing on the experiences of the young daughter of the Norwegian family, Ivi, with the local children, local school the local chief Tafua and his family, etc. The series was shown on

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

television channel

NRK Super NRK Super is a Norwegian TV & radio channel aimed at children, run by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The TV channel is broadcast on the digital terrestrial network, on the same frequency as NRK3 from 7am to 7pm, and was launched 1 Decem ...

. In October 2018, the king of the island, Ti Namo, made his first visit to the western world to share his worries about climate change on his island. He went to

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

in France, where he presented his documentary ''Nous Tikopia'' before a national release on November 7, and declared to the press, "Before, we suffered a cyclone every ten years. Today it's every two years."

References

External links

(The Island of Tikopia. HTV International/Channel 4 UK 1984) Early documentary film for UK television by Krov and Ann Menuhin. Part of the series of South Seas Voyage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QEPkMa3avA
Flaskepost fra stillehavet
(Message in a Bottle from the Pacific Ocean) A children's television program produced by NRK about a Norwegian family that spends a year living on the Island.
An essay on Tikopia, prepared for the BBC

BBC photo essay, from the aftermath of Cyclone Zoe
Despite the overwhelming devastation and the greatest fears, no one on Tikopia was killed in the disaster.
Tools and practical help after the cyclone

a Tour Site but with information on each of the islands
older detail map

A Voyaging Canoe for Tikopia

Lapita voyage, introduction and blogs