Tokelau

Tokelau is one of the smallest and most isolated territories in the world: three tiny coral atolls, Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo, north of Samoa. A territory of New Zealand, whose people are New Zealand citizens, it has no airport or airstrip: the only way there is more than a day by boat from Samoa. About 1,500 people live there, while a much larger diaspora lives in New Zealand. A Polynesian people, the Tokelauans keep up a very traditional customary society, on land barely above the sea and highly exposed to rising oceans.

Tokelau is made up of three low coral atolls: rings of reef and sandy islets planted with coconut palms, each around a lagoon. Nowhere does the land rise more than a few metres above the sea, which leaves Tokelau very vulnerable to rising water and to cyclones. There are no hills, rivers or deep soil: life takes place on narrow strips of land between lagoon and ocean, among coconut palms and pandanus. The tropical climate is hot and humid. Since 2012 its electricity has come almost entirely from solar power, a world first.

Settled about a thousand years ago by Polynesian navigators from Samoa and Tonga, the atolls developed highly organised clan societies. The 19th century was tragic: after the missionaries came, slave raiders from Peru carried off a large share of the men in 1863, and the population had to rebuild. A British protectorate from 1889, the atolls came under New Zealand administration in 1926. In two referendums, in 2006 and 2007, self-government in free association fell short of the required two-thirds majority. The territory is threatened by rising seas and by young people leaving for New Zealand.

Tokelau speaks Tokelauan, a Polynesian language close to Samoan and Tuvaluan, alongside English. Tokelauans are deeply Christian: each atoll has its main denomination, Protestant (Congregationalist) or Catholic, and the church is the central building of every village. Sunday, a day of rest and worship, is strictly kept. This faith fits into the customary system, where decisions are made in the council of elders, the taupulega, and where the extended family and the village shape everyone's life.

Tokelauan culture is Polynesian and deeply communal, one of the most traditional in the Pacific. Sharing is the rule: the inati system divides the catch and the harvest among all the families. People sing and dance together (the fatele, sung and beaten out on a wooden box), weave mats and baskets, and build canoes. Fishing and the coconut palm are at the centre of life and diet: fish, coconut, breadfruit, and pork for special occasions.