Concept: Tikopia and Santa Ana Resettlement Scheme

Details

By the 1950s, it was clear that Tikopia and the surrounding small islands were overcrowded and some migration was required, along the same lines as the Gilbertese re-settlement scheme (q.v.). In 1952 the worst cyclone in living memory devastated Tikopia, which prompted the Protectorate Government to provide relief aid and initiate a resettlement scheme. (Allan 1990, pt. 2, 133) The first migration was to the Nukufero resettlement at West Bay near Yandina in the Russell Islands in 1956. Levers had donated eighty acres, to which another 125 acres was added in the 1960s. This land has been allocated in four-acre blocks. In the early 1960s, the government began a second resettlement, of people from Tikopia and Santa Ana, to Waimasi on Makira. One hundred migrants had moved there by 1960. (AR 1959-1960, 6) Settlers were given plots of land from eight to ten acres and, provided they cultivated their new land for three years, they were entitled to receive a grant of perpetual estate on payment of a small sum. By 1965, there were five hundred Tikopians living at Nukufero in the Russell Islands. That year they were visited by Te Ariki Taumako, third Chief of Tikopia and Te Ariki Tepukoa from Anuda Island, accompanied by their personal representatives Paa Ngarumea and Paa Tafora. The chiefs also the made their first visit to Honiara. (NS 31 Aug. 1963, 15 Mar. 1965, 15 Feb. 1970; AR 1955-1956, 9; Tedder 2008, 212; Larson 1968, 1970)

Published resources

Books

  • Allan, Colin H., Solomons Safari, 1953-58 (Part II), Nag's Head Press, Christchurch, 1990. Details
  • Tedder, James L.O., Solomon Islands Years: A District Administrator in the Islands, 1952-1974, Tuatu Studies, Stuarts Point, NSW, 2008. Details

Journals

  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate (ed.), British Solomon Islands Protectorate News Sheet (NS), 1955-1975. Details

Journal Articles

  • Larson, Eric H., 'Tikopian Labour Migration to the Russell Islands', Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 77, no. 2, 1968, pp. 163-176. Details
  • Larson, Eric H., 'Tikopia Plantation Labour and Company Management Relations', Oceania, vol. 40, no. 3, 1970, pp. 195-209. Details

Reports

  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate, British Solomon Islands Protectorate Annual Reports (AR), 1896-1973. Details