Results for Pacific Islands

We can confidently position first settlement in Ha’apai between 825 and 810 BC, only three generations (75 years) after the first Lapita canoes arrived at Fanga ‘Uta Lagoon on Tongatapu. The dates for individual Lapita sites are informative. They not only answer the question of when, but they reflect upon the process by which the expansion was undertaken. Within Ha‘apai, simultaneous settlement, widely dispersed hamlets on different islands, and small groups of people clearly speak to a planned and organized strategy. In its creation of a settlement network northward from Tongatapu, it brilliantly laid title to these islands. By David Burley.

Massey University in New Zealand, has appointed distinguished scientist and professor Dr. Palatasa Havea ONZM to be the new Dean of the University’s “Office of Pasifika Student Success”.

An Otago University study is proposing that malaria in the past may have shaped the genome of Pacific people today, resulting in a genetic predisposition to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and gout. The elevated levels of uric acids, which can strengthen the immune response to the mosquito-borne disease are also what causes the inflammatory reactions in gout. “Pacific people have their own genetic variants,” says Dr Ana Gosling.

Fine Tu’itupou-Arnold, has become the first person of Pacific Island descent to be elected as a member of the Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent during an international conference last month in Geneva, Switzerland.

There are rare moments on an archaeological project which offer extraordinary insight into the past or when the past connects with the present in an utterly astonishing way. Both occurred in late July of 2007, as we were carrying out archaeological excavations in the village of Nukuleka at the northeast entrance to Fanga ‘Uta Lagoon on Tongatapu. This story is about the documentation of a shell game, taupita, but a shell game, as we found out, with an almost 3000-year-old history. It also is a story that binds Tonga’s earliest Lapita ancestors to the people of Nukuleka today. By David Burley and Sean Connaughton.

Samoan fine mats, or the ‘le Samoa, is one of 15 cultural practices worldwide that has joined UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 12 December.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) recovered today the bodies of six people who tragically died in Monday’s eruption on Whakaari/White Island. They stated NZDF will support efforts to recover the bodies of two others, in the hope there is resolution for those families

Tonga’s Permanent Representative to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi, Hon. ‘Akau’ola has presented his credentials to IRENA Director General, Francesco La Camera, ahead of the upcoming IRENA General Assembly in January 2020 and the World Future Energy Summit.

A population of coral reefs is making a remarkable recovery around the newest island on Earth, Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH), after it was formed during a volcanic eruption in 2015. A new crater connects the neighbouring islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai.