Niuatoputapu

Niuatoputapu
Map of Niuatoputapu
Waters	Pacific Ocean
Archipelago	Niuas
Geographical location	15 ° 57 '34 "  S , 173 ° 47' 0"  W Coordinates: 15 ° 57 '34 "  S , 173 ° 47' 0"  W.
surface	18 km²
Highest elevation	157  m
Residents	708 (2016) 39 inhabitants / km²
main place	Hihifo
Satellite image of Niuatoputapu and Tafahi (above)

Niuatoputapu (old names: Verraders Eyland ( Schouten ), Keppel's Isle ( Wallis )) is an 18 km² island in the South Pacific belonging to the Kingdom of Tonga . Geographically, it belongs to the Niua group and is located in the extreme north of the kingdom, about 300 km north of the main group of Tonga.

geography

Niuatoputapu, like the other islands of the Niuas, is of volcanic origin. In the north and north-west the island is surrounded by a coral reef that has only a narrow passage. The highest point is an arid ridge at a height of 157 meters in the northwest of the island, the remnant of a long-extinct and already eroded volcano . The settlements are located on the north-west coast, especially the south and north-east of the island is densely covered with tropical vegetation and is uninhabited.

climate

The summers (in the Central European winter) are hot and humid with temperatures well over 30 ° C, which are, however, mitigated by the constantly blowing sea breeze. Rainfalls are frequent and heavy, but only last for a short time. In the drier winter, temperatures fluctuate between 15 ° C at night and a pleasant 25 ° C during the day. Niuatoputapu is located in the hurricane belt of the South Pacific. Stormy winds are not uncommon. In 1998 Hurricane "Ron" hit the island and caused considerable damage, 18 houses were destroyed. In 2004, hurricane "Heta" destroyed a large part of the plantations on Niuatoputapu, but humans were not harmed.

On September 29, 2009, Niuatoputapu was hit by waves over 6 m high from a tsunami . There were 9 dead, 80 houses were destroyed and another 52 damaged.

history

The research of the archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch of the University of California , Berkeley , who carried out extensive excavations in the 1970s, has thoroughly researched the prehistory of Niuatoputapu, far better than that of the other islands in the Tonga Archipelago.

Niuatoputapu was one of the oldest traces of human settlement in Polynesia . A radiocarbon dating of a pile of garbage early beach settlement yielded an age 2800-3000 years. In Kirch's opinion, the Tonga Islands - and thus also Niuatoputapu - belong together with Samoa to the heartland of the Polynesian settlement and the starting point of the Polynesian expansion .

Niuatoputapu had its own state until the middle of the 16th century, but in the period up to the first European contact came under the hegemony of the Kingdom of Tonga. From this time 92 places of worship - artificially built mounds of earth of different sizes and properties - can be proven on the island. The largest hill covers 2518 cubic meters. Some, particularly on the northern and northwestern coastline, include graves and are clad with stones. Others, especially the larger ones, were built specifically for pigeon hunting . Radiocarbon dating of organic material from such a burial site showed an age of 500 years, i.e. H. the system was still in use about 150 years before the first contact with Europeans.

From the large number of places of worship, each of which can be assigned to a settlement, it can be concluded that the island was once divided into several regional clans , which were subordinate to a tribal chief. The distribution suggests at least twelve tribal principalities (chiefdoms). These findings, supplemented by the reports of early European explorers, show a dense Polynesian settlement with a much higher population than today.

Niuatoputapu once had its own language of which only a few words are known, which European visitors collected and recorded in the 17th century. The language was suppressed during Tongan hegemony and lost for good in the 19th century. Today's official language is Tongan , and many, especially younger residents, speak English .

According to tradition, Niuatoputapu is protected by the god Seketoa , who manifests himself in the form of a giant shark .

The island was discovered for Europe in 1616 by Willem Cornelisz Schouten and Jacob Le Maire during their voyage of discovery with the ships Hoorn and Eendracht in the Pacific Ocean. Schouten describes the indigenous population as "muscular, excellent swimmers", but also as "aggressive and thieving, naked savages".

When the Europeans reached the island on May 11, 1616, a large number of war canoes were already waiting for them. The men carried clubs and immediately attacked the sailors, who responded with musket shots. The conflict ended with one islander killed.

The next day the islanders came back and offered pigs, coconuts, bananas and other fruits for exchange. They swam to the two ships and tried to get on board. Then the king approached the island in a large double-hulled canoe that was escorted by more than 35 other canoes and offered a black pig as a gift. The Dutch returned the favor with an old hatchet and a few rusty nails and glass beads. In a culture that knew no glass and metal, these were coveted gifts. The following morning, May 13, 1616, the Dutch ships were surrounded by 23 large double-hulled canoes and 45 dugout canoes with around 800 armed locals. At first they gave the impression that they wanted to trade. Suddenly they tried to attack under the leadership of the king canoe and hurled stones at the ships. The Dutch responded with cannon and musket fire. Numerous islanders were killed in this conflict. Schouten then named the island Verraders Eyland (Traitor's Island).

On August 13, 1767, Samuel Wallis reached Niuatoputapu, which he called Keppel's Isle , after Admiral Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel , First Lord of the Admiralty. In search of fresh water (the team discovered the Niutoua spring near today's village Hihifo), they briefly came into contact with locals, which Valais describes as follows:

While the two boats were ashore, two canoes approached with six men in them who seemed to be in a peaceful mood. They looked similar to the residents of King George's Island [Tahiti], but they were clad in some sort of mat and the first member of their little finger was cut off. About 50 more came in from the interior at the same time, but they only approached 50 yards and stopped there. When they had stared at us enough, they ran away. Three of the men in the canoes got into one of our boats, but when we cast off they jumped overboard and swam back to the island.

Population and infrastructure

Historical map of Niuatoputapu and Tafahi

The island also forms the administrative district of the same name with the three villages Hihifo , Vaipoa , Falehau and the island of Tafahi . Niuatoputapu has a total of 708 inhabitants according to the 2016 census . A historical map from around 1932 shows a small village called Matavai south of Hihifo . In the 1996 census there were still 1661 inhabitants. Their number is likely to have decreased in the meantime, since the island, which is isolated - also within the Kingdom of Tonga - suffers from emigration, especially by young people.

The largest town with the seat of the local administration is Hihifo in the northwest. Here you will find a school, hospital, post office (bank and customs office at the same time) with a satellite telephone, a small shop for local needs and the churches - a Catholic church, two Protestant free churches and a Mormon parish .

The abundant Niutoua spring rises in the west of the village and pours its water into a natural freshwater pond and then into the sea in a narrow channel. The refreshingly cool pond is used by residents for swimming. They claim that someone who was not immersed in the source was not actually on Niuatoputapu either. According to legend, the spring came into being when a demon from Niuatoputapu tickled a Samoa devil and when he had to laugh out loud, the spring broke out.

A royal palace was built just outside Hihifo, a large, corrugated iron-roofed hut that the King of Tonga can use on one of his rare visits to Niuatoputapu.

There is no tourist infrastructure with bars or restaurants in the villages. The Palm Tree Resort , a small hotel complex with four bungalows and a restaurant , is located on Hunganga, an upstream motu that is only separated from Hihifo by a narrow flow channel and which has to be waded through at low tide. The hotel complex offers a magical view of the Pacific and of the 9 km away island of Tafahi , which consists of a single, densely green shield volcano.

South of Hihifo is the airport ( IATA abbreviation: NTT), an unpaved runway that is approached with small fan guns every two weeks from Tonga via Vavaʻu .

The other two villages are Falehau and Vaipoa. All settlements are connected with unpaved roads, there are only a few cars on Niuatoputapu.

Falehau has a concrete pier where a supply ship, which also takes passengers, docks every two months. Depending on the weather, the arrival of the ship can be delayed, which leads to supply bottlenecks on the island.

The residents are largely self-sufficient. Cultivated taro , cassava , yams , breadfruit , plantains and all sorts of tropical fruits. Almost all households keep pigs and chickens that roam free in the villages. Fishing is an essential food source. Other useful plants are coconut palms , the basis of a modest copra production, and the pandanus , whose fibers are partly exported, but are also processed on site to make mats and baskets. The pandanus leaves are also used to cover the roofs of the huts, but are being displaced more and more by corrugated iron.

Niuatoputapu is occasionally visited by circumnavigators, but otherwise rarely visited by tourists , although the island is surrounded by numerous beautiful sandy beaches.

literature

• Patrick Vinton Kirch, Niuatoputapu: The Prehistory of a Polynesian Chiefdom , University of Washington Press, 1989, ISBN 0-295-96833-8

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Center for International Disaster Information ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Patrick Vinton Kirch: On the Roads of the Winds - An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact , Berkeley 2000, p. 95
4. ↑ Patrick Vinton Kirch: Monumental architecture and power in Polynesian chiefdoms , World Archeology, Volume 22, pp. 206 ff.
5. ↑ Patrick V. Kirch: Niuatoputapu: The Prehistory of a Polynesian Chiefdom , in American Antiquity, Vol. 56, 1991, p. 174
6. ^ Robert Kerr : A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels , Volume 10, London 1824
7. ^ Samuel Wallis: An Account of a Voyage round the World in the Years 1776, 177, and 1778 by Samuel Wallis Esq. Commander of his Majesty's Ship the Dolphin , London 1773
8. ^ Tonga Tonga National Population and Housing Census 2016. Statistics Department Tonga, 2016, accessed April 9, 2018 .