Tiny, Isolated Tokelau and its Place in the World

Jan 6, 2011
Brian Cross

The Flag of Tokelau - Image from Tokelau Government

The territory of Tokelau in the Pacific Ocean has a colonial period history that attests to its isolation, a place of little relevance to global affairs.

Three coral atolls widely dispersed to the north of Samoa and totaling a mere 10 square km of land, Tokelau is today a non-self-governing territory administered from Wellington. The story of the islands’ place as part of New Zealand dates to British actions in sweeping up unclaimed territories at the height of Empire, and subsequent disposal as political priorities changed.

Like Britain before it, New Zealand has shown a willingness to relinquish its role as overseer and protector of the approximately 1,400 people who live on Tokelau. But for the meantime that is not an option. In referenda held in 2006 and 2007, Tokelauans narrowly voted to remain under the administration of Wellington, its people New Zealand citizens.

The Coral Atolls of Tokelau

The Tokelau islands of Fakaofo, Nukunonu and Atafu were settled as part of the great Pacific migrations, their people most closely related to those of Tuvalu to the immediate west. Both island groups are part of Polynesia.

The first recorded visit by a European was that of Captain John Byron when he reached Atafu in command of HMS Dolphin in 1765. Byron was more interested in commercial gain than empire building, and after landing to collect fresh coconuts, he quickly moved on. In 1791 HMS Pandora called at Atafu in search of the Bounty mutineers, sighting Nukunonu on the journey.

The British whaler Phoenix made the first contact with Tokelau’s people when it called in 1824. During the years that followed, while whalers were very active in the region, little notice was taken of the tiny atolls, until in 1841 the United States Exploring Expedition studied and surveyed the waters around all three islands. After that, imperial and colonial interest began to develop.

Tokelau and the West

By the mid-19th century the people of Tokelau, which was by then known to the outside world as the Union Islands, were experiencing the brunt of western civilization. Missionaries arrived shortly after the American expedition, and Peruvian slave traders preyed on the islands in the 1860s, causing considerable depopulation. At the same time Tokelau’s copra was drawing the attention of British and American merchants, and there were cases of illegal land appropriation in these islands that had no effective political defenses against incursion from outside.

In the 1870s the British government stepped in and established laws to control British subjects operating in the Pacific as it laid claim to all the remaining territories it could. In 1889 the Union Islands Protectorate was formed, Tokelau by then presenting a strategic advantage to the Empire, as it lay on the direct route of the planned all-British Pacific cable. While there would be no relay station on any of Tokelau’s islands, the cable would run through the group and a number of potential routes needed to be considered. As a British protectorate, Tokelau was at his time administered from Samoa, and once the cable was laid official visits to the isolated atolls became infrequent.

When in 1899 Britain relinquished its claims on Samoa to Germany in return for securing other Pacific territory, administration of the Tokelau Islands became even more problematic. In 1909 the islands were included in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate (later Colony), that artificial grouping in the vast central south Pacific that would later form the independent nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu. For the first time the colonial rulers would have a presence on Tokelau when district officers were stationed there.

New Zealand Takes Responsibility for Tokelau

Following World War One and the transfer of rule over then Western Samoa to New Zealand, Britain tried to persuade its South Pacific dominion to also assume responsibility for the Tokelau Islands. This it was reluctant to do until Britain made trade easier by facilitating shipping access via Apia. In 1925 Tokelau was released from the Gilbert and Ellice Colony and formally handed to New Zealand for administration on behalf of Britain. In 1948 New Zealand took full sovereign responsibility for the Tokelau Islands, which was officially renamed Tokelau in 1976.

With encouragement from the United Nations, New Zealand has facilitated political moves for an independent Tokelau. But with so much reliance on New Zealand for its income, both through government aid and the remittances of the some 6.800 Tokelauans living permanently in NZ, the island people for the meantime have chosen to remain under New Zealand administration. Long having held an uncertain place on the international political scene, Tokelau also has a tenuous physical grasp. It is one of the places most vulnerable to the rising sea level effects of global warming.