Nukulaelae is an atoll that is part of the nation of Tuvalu,[1] and it has a population of 300 (2017 census). The largest settlement is Pepesala on Fangaua islet with a population of 300 people (2017 Census).[2] It has the form of an oval and consists of at least 15 islets.[3] The inhabited islet is Fangaua, which is 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long and 50 to 200 metres (160 to 660 ft) wide. The easternmost point of Tuvalu is Niuoko islet. The Nukulaelae Conservation Area covers the eastern end of the lagoon. A baseline survey of marine life in the conservation zone was conducted in 2010.[4][5]
History
The traditional history of Nukulaelae is that a white-skinned man was the first person to sight the island, but he did not settle as there were no trees. Nukulaelae means 'the land of sands'.[6] Later, according to tradition, Valoa from Vaitupu discovered Nukulaelae while on a fishing expedition. He returned to Nukulaelae and planted coconut trees and eventually settled on Nukulaelae with his family.[6] On the islet of Tumuiloto was a malae named Fagafale where religious rights honouring ancestral spirits were practiced.[6] On the islet of Niuoka is a large stone at a place called Te Faleatua - 'the house of the gods.'[6]
In 1821 Nukulaelae was visited by Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II He named the atoll ‘Mitchell’s Group’.[7]
The population of Nukulaelae in 1860 is estimated to be 300 people.[11][12] For less than a year between 1862 and 1863, Peruvian ships, engaged in what came to be called the "blackbirding" trade, came to the islands seeking recruits to fill the extreme labour shortage in Peru, including workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands.[13] On Nukulaelae, the resident trader facilitated the recruiting of the islanders by the "blackbirders".[14] About 200 were taken from Nukulaelae[15] as immediately after 1863 there were fewer than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae.[11][16]
Peter Laban was an early trader on Nukulaelae in the 1850s, followed by Tom Rose in the 1860s, and later Richard Collins in the 1890s.[14] In 1865 a trading captain acting on behalf of the German firm of J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn obtained a 25-year lease to the eastern islet of Niuoko.[17] For many years the islanders and the Germans argued over the lease, including its terms and the importation of labourers, however the Germans remained until the lease expired in 1890.[17]
In 1896, HMS Penguin spent two days at Nukulaelae carrying out a scientific survey of the atoll.[18]
The atoll was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act from the 19th century until 1983, when claims to the atoll were ceded to Tuvalu.
^British Admiralty Nautical Chart 766 Ellice Islands (1893 ed.). United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO). 21 March 1872.
^Sandrine Job; Daniela Ceccarelli (December 2012). "Tuvalu Marine Life Scientific Report"(PDF). an Alofa Tuvalu project with the Tuvalu Fisheries Department. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
^Sandrine Job; Daniela Ceccarelli (December 2011). "Tuvalu Marine Life Synthesis Report"(PDF). an Alofa Tuvalu project with the Tuvalu Fisheries Department. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
^ abcdTinilau, Vaieli (1983). "Chapter 14 - Nukulaelae". In Laracy, Hugh (ed.). Tuvalu: A History. Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and Government of Tuvalu. pp. 97–98. OCLC20637433.
^Chambers, Keith S.; Munro, Doug (June 1980). "The Mystery of Gran Cocal: European Discovery and Mis-Discovery in Tuvalu". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 89 (2): 167–198. JSTOR20705476.
^Laumua Kofe (1980). Tuvalu: A History, Palagi and Pastors, Ch. 15. Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and Government of Tuvalu.
^Goldsmith, Michael; Munro, Doug (2002). The accidental missionary: tales of Elekana. Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury. ISBN1877175331.
^ abNewton, W.F. (June 1967). "The Early Population of the Ellice Islands". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 76 (2): 197–204. JSTOR20704460.
^Maude, H.E. (1981). Slavers in paradise : the Peruvian labour trade in Polynesia, 1862-1864. Australian National University Press. ISBN9780708116074.
^ abDoug Munro, The Lives and Times of Resident Traders in Tuvalu: An Exercise in History from Below, (1987) 10(2) Pacific Studies 73
^The figure of 250 taken from Nukulaelae is given by Laumua Kofe, Palagi and Pastors, Tuvalu: A History, Ch. 15, U.S.P. & Tuvalu (1983)
^The figure of 250 taken from Nukulaelae is stated by Richard Bedford, Barrie Macdonald & Doug Munro, Population Estimates for Kiribati and Tuvalu (1980) 89(1) Journal of the Polynesian Society 199
^ abSuamalie N.T. Iosefa; Doug Munro; Niko Besnier (1991). Tala O Niuoku, Te: the German Plantation on Nukulaelae Atoll 1865-1890. Institute of Pacific Studies. ISBN9820200733.
Suamalie N.T. Iosefa, Doug Munro, Niko Besnier Tala O Niuoku, Te: the German Plantation on Nukulaelae Atoll 1865-1890 (1991) Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies. ISBN9820200733
