Sir Tomu Malaefone Sione, GCMG,OBE (17 November 1941 – April 2016), was a political figure from the Pacific nation of Tuvalu. He worked as a journalist from 1962 to 1968, and held the post of radio announcer in the Broadcasting and Information Department of the administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEIC). He was the head of the southern Niutao clan. He was married to Segali. (Full article...)
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Tuvalu elects a legislature on a national level. The Parliament of Tuvalu (Palamene o Tuvalu) has 16 members, elected for a four-year term in 8 double-seat constituencies. Tuvalu is a de facto non-partisan democracy since it does not have political parties. The political system is based on personal alliances and loyalties derived from clan and family connections. It does tend to have both a distinct government and a distinct opposition. The 16 members of the current parliament are elected from eight two-seat constituencies via plurality block voting.
Tuvalu is a small island nation in the South Pacific, located North of Fiji and North West of Samoa. The population at the 2012 census was 10,837 (2012 Population & Housing Census Preliminary Analytical Report). Tuvalu has a written constitution which includes a statement of rights influenced by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. While most human rights in Tuvalu are respected, areas of concern include women’s rights and freedom of belief, as well as diminishing access to human rights in the face of global warming. The latter has played a major role in the implementation of human rights actions in Tuvalu given its geographical vulnerability and scarce resources. (Full article...)
The traditional music of Tuvalu consists of dances, including fatele, fakanau and fakaseasea. The influence of the Samoan missionaries sent to Tuvalu by the London Missionary Society from the 1860s resulted in the suppression of songs about the traditional religions or magic and many songs were lost. As the influence of the missionaries diminished in the 20th century the traditional dances were revived and the siva dance tradition from Samoa also became popular.
Te titi tao is a traditional skirt placed upon another skirt - a titi kaulama - and tops (teuga saka), headbands, armbands, and wristbands continue to be used in performances of the fatele. (Full article...)
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Tuvalu consists of nine separate islands: six atolls and three reef islands. An atoll typically consists of several motus: Tuvalu has a total of 124 islands and islets. Each island is surrounded by a coral reef. The soils of Tuvalu's islands are usually shallow, porous, alkaline, coarse-textured, with carbonate mineralogy and high pH values of up to 8.2 to 8.9. The soils are usually deficient in most of the important nutrients needed for plant growth, so garden beds need to be enhanced with mulch to increase their fertility. Tuvalu's small, widely scattered atolls have a total land area of only about 26 square kilometres (10 square miles) making Tuvalu the fourth-smallest country in the world.
The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has been rising at a rate of 3.9 mm per year, and it has been determined that rising sea levels are causing more wave energy to be transferred across reef surfaces, which has tended to push more sand onto island shorelines, increasing islands’ land area. Over a recent four-decade period, there was a net increase in the land area of the islets of 2.9% (73.5 ha), although the changes were not uniform: About 74% of them increased in size and about 27% decreased in size. (Full article...)
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Location of Fongafale island in the Funafuti atoll
Fongafale (also spelled Fogale or Fagafale) is the largest of Funafuti's islets in Tuvalu. It is a long narrow sliver of land, 12 kilometres long and between 10 and 400 metres wide, with the South Pacific Ocean and reef on the east and the protected lagoon on the west. The north part is the Tengako peninsula, and Funafuti International Airport runs from northeast to southwest on the widest part of the island, with the village and administrative centre of Vaiaku on the lagoon side.
On Fongafale, the Funafuti Kaupule is responsible for approval of the construction of houses or extensions to existing buildings on private land, and the Lands Management Committee is the responsible authority in relation to lands leased by government. (Full article...)
The Constitution of Tuvalu states that it is "the supreme law of Tuvalu" and that "all other laws shall be interpreted and applied subject to this Constitution"; it sets out the Principles of the Bill of Rights and the Protection of the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. In 1986 the Constitution adopted upon independence was amended in order to give attention to Tuvaluan custom and tradition as well as the aspirations and values of the Tuvaluan people. The changes placed greater emphasis on Tuvaluan community values rather than Western concepts of individual freedom. The Constitution of Tuvalu Act 2023, further addressed the role of Tuvaluan culture, and also referred to the climate crisis, and Tuvalu’s statehood and national boundaries. (Full article...)
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Fred Whibley, Island trader on Niutao 1898 to 1909 (Fred Whibley c.1888)
Fredrick George Whibley (1855–1919) abandoned a career as clerk in a London bank to escape from the constraints and social expectations of respectability in the Victorian era. He ended up as a copra trader on Niutao in the Ellice Islands in the central Pacific Ocean.
A paopao (from the Samoan language, meaning a small fishing canoe made from a single log), is the name used by the Polynesian-speaking inhabitants of the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) for their single-outrigger canoes, of which the largest could carry four to six adults. The large double-hulled sailing canoes (lualua and foulua) had ceased to be constructed in the Ellice Islands some time before contact with Europeans.
Donald Gilbert Kennedy, the resident District Officer in the administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1932 to 1938, described the construction of paopao and of the variations of single-outrigger canoes that had been developed on Vaitupu and Nanumea. Gerd Koch, an anthropologist, visited the atolls of Nanumaga, Nukufetau and Niutao, in 1960–61, and published a book on the material culture of the Ellice Islands, which also described the canoes of those islands. (Full article...)
The literature review by Miller (2006) found four additional cetaceans reported: orca or killer whale (Orcinus orca), spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), and sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). The pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata) is found in the lists of both Miller and the IUCN. (Full article...)
Sopoaga was elected to Parliament in the 2010 general election. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Environment and Labour in Prime Minister Maatia Toafa's short-lived government from September to December 2010. Following an unsuccessful bid for the premiership in December 2010 (with Toafa's support), he became leader of the Opposition to prime minister Willy Telavi's government. He became caretaker prime minister on 1 August 2013 following Telavi's removal by the Governor General, in the context of a political crisis. A day later, on 2 August 2013, the opposition successfully voted out Telavi's government in a no confidence vote. Following this, a ballot was held to elect the new prime minister of Tuvalu and Sopoaga won with 8 votes to 4. He was sworn in on 5 August 2013, and created his ministry the same day. (Full article...)
Paopao outrigger canoes are still constructed today such as this one being carved on Nanumea. 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-hull sailing canoes or outrigger canoes.
Image 4Polynesia is the largest of three major cultural areas in the Pacific Ocean. Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian triangle. (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 13The atoll of Funafuti; borings into a coral reef and the results, being the report of the Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society (1904). (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 38Main Street in Funafuti, (circa 1905). (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 391st Lt. Louis Zamperini, peers through a hole in his B-24D Liberator 'Super Man' made by a 20mm shell over Nauru, 20 April 1943. (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 40Interior of a maneapa on Funafuti, Tuvalu. (from History of Tuvalu)