Education In Tuvalu

The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians, so the origins of the people of Tuvalu can be traced to the spread of humans out of Southeast Asia, from Taiwan, via Melanesia and across the Pacific islands of Polynesia.

Various names were given to individual islands by the captains and chartmakers on visiting European ships. 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.

The United States claimed Funafuti, Nukufetau, Nukulaelae and Niulakita under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. This claim was renounced under the 1983 treaty of friendship between Tuvalu and the United States.

The Ellice Islands came under Great Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century as the result of a treaty between Great Britain and Germany relating to the demarcation of the spheres of influence in the Pacific Ocean. Each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British Protectorate by Captain Herbert Gibson of , between 9 and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916, and then as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916 to 1976.

In 1974, the Ellice Islanders voted for separate British dependency status as Tuvalu, which resulted in the Gilbert Islands becoming Kiribati upon independence. The Colony of Tuvalu came into existence on 1 October 1975. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1 October 1978. On 5 September 2000, Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations.

The Tuvalu National Library and Archives hold "vital documentation on the cultural, social and political heritage of Tuvalu", including surviving records from the colonial administration, as well as Tuvalu government archives."Tuvalu National Archives major project"
, British Library

Early history

Tuvaluans are a Polynesian people, with the origins of the people of Tuvalu addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago. There is evidence for a dual genetic origin of Pacific Islanders in Asia and Melanesia, which results from an analysis of Y chromosome (NRY) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers; there is also evidence that Fiji playing a pivotal role in west-to-east expansion within Polynesia.

During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the islands, as Polynesian navigation skills are recognised to have allowed deliberate journeys on double-hulled sailing canoes or outrigger canoes. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in Tuvaluan (compare to ''*walo'' meaning "eight" in Proto-Austronesian). Possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation thousands of years before that. The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from the Samoan Islands into the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone to migration into the Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia and Micronesia.

An important creation myth of the islands of Tuvalu is the story of ''te Pusi mo te Ali'' (the Eel and the Flounder) who created the islands of Tuvalu; ''te Ali'' (the flounder) is believed to be the origin of the flat atolls of Tuvalu and ''te Pusi'' (the eel) is the model for the coconut palms that are important in the lives of Tuvaluans. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island. On Niutao the understanding is that their ancestors came from Samoa in the 12th or 13th century. On Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa; whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga.

These stories can be linked to what is known about the Samoa-based Tu'i Manu'a Confederacy, ruled by the holders of the Tu'i Manú'a title, which confederacy likely included much of Western Polynesia and some outliers at the height of its power in the 10th and 11th centuries.

Tuvalu was also thought to have been visited by Tongans in the mid-13th century and was within Tonga's sphere of influence. Captain James Cook observed and recorded his accounts of the Tuʻi Tonga kings during his visits to the Friendly Isles of Tonga. By observing such Pacific cultures as Tuvalu and Uvea, the influence of the Tuʻi Tonga line of Tongan kings and the existence of the Tuʻi Tonga Empire, which originated in the 10th century, was quite strong and has had more of an impact in Polynesia and also parts of Micronesia than the Tu'i Manu'a.

The oral history of Niutao recalls that in the 15th century Tongan warriors were defeated in a battle on the reef of Niutao. Tongan warriors also invaded Niutao later in the 15th century and again were repelled. A third and fourth invasion of Tongan occurred in the late 16th century, again with the Tongans being defeated.

Tuvalu is on the western boundary of the Polynesian Triangle so that the northern islands of Tuvalu, particularly Nui, have links to Micronesians from Kiribati. The oral history of Niutao also recalls that during the 17th century warriors invaded from the islands of Kiribati on two occasions and were defeated in battles fought on the reef.

Voyages by Europeans in the Pacific

Tuvalu was first sighted by Europeans on 16 January 1568, during the voyage of Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, Spanish explorer and cartographer, who sailed past the island of Nui, and charted it as ''Isla de Jesús'' (Spanish for "Island of Jesus"). This was because the previous day had been 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 he named ''La Solitaria''.
Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the . Byron charted the atolls as ''Lagoon Islands''.

The first recorded sighting of Nanumea by Europeans was by Spanish naval officer Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa who sailed past it on 5 May 1781 as captain of the frigate ''La Princesa'', when attempting a southern crossing of the Pacific from the Philippines to New Spain. He charted Nanumea as ''San Augustin''.Keith S. Chambers & Doug Munro, ''The Mystery of Gran Cocal: European Discovery and Mis-Discovery in Tuvalu'', 89(2) (1980) ''The Journal of the Polynesian Society'', 167-198 Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) identified Niutao as the island that Mourelle also sailed 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 not available until the late 18th century. Laumua Kofe (1983) accepts Chambers and Munro's conclusions, with Kofe describing Mourelle's ship ''La Princesa'', as waiting beyond the reef, with Nuitaoans coming out in canoes, bringing some coconuts with them. ''La Princesa'' was short of supplies but Mourelle was forced to sail on – naming Niutao, ''El Gran Cocal'' ('The Great Coconut Plantation').

In 1809, Captain Patterson in the brig ''Elizabeth'' sighted Nanumea while passing through the northern Tuvalu waters on a trading voyage from Port Jackson, Sydney, Australia to China.
In May 1819, Arent Schuyler de Peyster, of New York, captain of the armed brigantine or privateer ''Rebecca'', sailing under British colours, passed through the southern Tuvaluan waters while on a voyage from Valparaíso to India; de Peyster sighted 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. The next morning, de Peyster sighted another group of about seventeen low islands forty-three miles northwest of Funafuti, which was named "De Peyster's Islands." It is the first name, Nukufetau, that was eventually used for this atoll.

In 1820 the Russian explorer Mikhail Lazarev visited Nukufetau as commander of the ''Mirny''. Louis Isidore Duperrey, captain of ''La Coquille'', sailed past Nanumanga in May 1824 during a circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825). A Dutch expedition by the frigate ''Maria Reigersberg'' under captain Koerzen, and the corvette ''Pollux'' under captain C. Eeg, found Nui on the morning of 14 June 1825 and named the main island ( Fenua Tapu) as ''Nederlandsch Eiland''.

TROOST(1829) p405 Platte Grond van het Nederlandsch-Eiland.jpg, Dutch map of Nui atoll, made in June 1825.
TROOST(1829) p297 Het Nederlandsch Eiland.jpg, View of Fenua Tapu, Nui atoll.
TROOST(1829) p293 Het Nederlandsch Eilanden.jpg, View of Nui atoll.

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 coal was used to melt down the whale blubber.

For less than a year between 1862 and 1863, Peruvian ships engaged in the so-called "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, including workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands.H.E. Maude, ''Slavers in Paradise'', Institute of Pacific Studies (1981) On Funafuti and Nukulaelae, the resident traders facilitated the recruiting of the islanders by the "blackbirders".Doug Munro, ''The Lives and Times of Resident Traders in Tuvalu: An Exercise in History from Below'', (1987) 10(2) Pacific Studies 73 The Rev. Archibald Wright Murray, the earliest European missionary in Tuvalu, reported that in 1863 about 180 people were taken from Funafuti and about 200 were taken from Nukulaelae, as there were fewer than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae.

Trading firms & traders

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. The Sydney firms of Robert Towns and Company, J. C. Malcolm and Company, and Macdonald, Smith and Company, pioneered the coconut-oil trade in Tuvalu.Doug Munro, ''The Lives and Times of Resident Traders in Tuvalu: An Exercise in History from Below'', (1987) 10(2) Pacific Studies 73 The German firm of J.C. Godeffroy und Sohn of Hamburg established operations in Apia, Samoa. In 1865 a trading captain acting on behalf of J.C. Godeffroy und Sohn obtained a 25-year lease to the eastern islet of Niuoko of Nukulaelae atoll.

For many years the islanders and the Germans argued over the lease, including its terms and the importation of labourers, however the Germans remained until the lease expired in 1890. By the 1870s J. C. Godeffroy und Sohn began to dominate the Tuvalu copra trade, which company was in 1879 taken over by Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellschaft der Südsee-Inseln zu Hamburg (DHPG). Competition came from Ruge, Hedemann & Co, established in 1875, which was succeeded by H. M. Ruge and Company, and from Henderson and Macfarlane of Auckland, New Zealand.''The Circular Saw Shipping Line.''
Anthony G. Flude. 1993. (Chapter 7)

These trading companies engaged palagi traders who lived on the islands, some islands would have competing traders with dryer islands only have a single trader. Louis Becke, who later found success as a writer, was a trader on Nanumanga, working with the Liverpool firm of John S. de Wolf and Co., from April 1880 until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone. He then became a trader on Nukufetau. George Westbrook and Alfred Restieaux operated trade stores on Funafuti, which were destroyed in a cyclone that struck in 1883.

H. M. Ruge and Company, a German trading firm that operated from Apia, Samoa, caused controversy when it threatened to seize the entire island of Vaitupu unless a debt of $13,000 was repaid. The debt was the result of the failed operations of the Vaitupu Company, which had been established by Thomas William Williams, with part of the debt relating to the attempts to operate the trading schooner ''Vaitupulemele''. The Vaitupuans continue to celebrate Te Aso Fiafia (Happy Day) on 25 November of each year. Te Aso Fiafia commemorates 25 November 1887 which was the date on which the final instalment of the debt of $13,000 was repaid.

From the late 1880s changes occurred with steamships replacing sailing vessels. Over time the number of competing trading companies diminished, beginning with Ruge's bankruptcy in 1888 followed by the withdrawal of the DHPG from trading in Tuvalu in 1889/90. In 1892 Captain Edward Davis of , 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). The 1880s was the time at which the greatest number of palagi traders lived on the atolls. In 1892 the traders either acted as agent for Henderson and Macfarlane, or traded on their own account.

From around 1900, Henderson and Macfarlane operating their vessel SS ''Archer'' in the South Pacific with a trading route to Fiji and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. New competition came from Burns Philp, operating from what is now Kiribati, with competition from Levers Pacific Plantations starting in 1903. Captain Ernest Frederick Hughes Allen of the Samoa Shipping and Trading Company competed for copra in the Ellice Islands, and the sale of goods to the islanders, when he built a trading store on Funafuti in 1911. In June 1914 he made Funafuti the operational base of the company, until the company was liquidated in 1925. Burns Philp continued to operate in the Ellice Islands, the company transferred the wooden auxiliary schooner ''Murua'' (253 tons) to the Tarawa