History of Lau

 The history and anthropology of the Lau Islands

The first wave out of Africa

The second wave from Taiwan - the Lapita people.

Recent research on DNA has shed more light on the origins of the Lapita people.

DNA reveals Lapita ancestors of Pacific Islanders came from Asia.

Professor Roger Green is one of the main archeologists who studied Lapita migration.

The Lapita people have been called 'The Vikings of the Pacific'

They established a base in the Bismarck Archipelago in about 1400 BC. They used volcanic glass called obsidian in their tools. They had outrigger canoes, spoke Austronesian languages, and produced characteristic Lapita pottery.

Lapita pottery found here

Their descendants became the Polynesians, who colonized the Pacific.

The Papuan peoples tended to live on the New Guinea mainland. They speak about 600 different languages. The Austronesians tend to live on the islands and coastal areas. They have about 200 languages. More on the languages of the Pacific here.

Since they lie between Melanesian Fiji and Polynesian Tonga, the Lau Islands are a meeting point of the two cultural spheres. Discussed here.

Fiji was settled by Austronesian peoples at around 1100–1000 BC, with Melanesians following around a thousand years later, although the question of Pacific migration still lingers. It is believed that the Lapita people or the ancestors of the Polynesians settled the islands first but not much is known of what became of them after the Melanesians arrived; they may have had some influence on the new culture, and archaeological evidence shows that they would have then moved on to Samoa, Tonga and even Hawai'i.

Archeological evidence shows signs of settlement on the island of Moturiki from 600 BC and possibly as far back as 900 BC. Aspects of Fijian culture are similar to the Melanesian culture of the western Pacific but have a stronger connection to the older Polynesian cultures. Trade between Fiji and neighbouring archipelagos long before European contact is evidenced by the canoes made from native Fijian trees found in Tonga and Tongan words being part of the language of the Lau group of islands. Pots made in Fiji have been found in Samoa and even the Marquesas Islands.

In the 10th century, the Tu'i Tonga Empire was established in Tonga, and Fiji came within its sphere of influence. The Tongan influence brought Polynesian customs and language into Fiji. The empire began to decline in the 13th century.

Abel Tasman was the first known European visitor to Fiji, sighting the northern island of Vanua Levu and the North Taveuni archipelago in 1643 while looking for Terra Australis incognita, or the Great Southern Continent. He called this island group Prince William's islands and Heemskerck Shoals (today called the Lau group).

James Cook, the British navigator, visited one of the southern Lau islands in 1774. It was not until 1789, however, that the islands were charted and plotted, when William Bligh, the castaway captain of HMS Bounty, passed Ovalau and sailed between the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu en route to Batavia, in what is now Indonesia. Bligh Water, the strait between the two main islands, is named after him, and for a time, the Fiji Islands were known as the "Bligh Islands."

In the nineteenth century, various European powers and missionaries became involved. The story is complex. A local chief called Cakobau came to dominate some of the feuding tribes.

Cakabau

The Americans held him responsible for some other chiefs burning down their consul's house, and claimed he owed them $44,000 compensation. Cakabau ceded the islands to the UK in 1874, this passing the debt on to Queen Victoria!

Fiji during the time of Cakobau (Wikipedia). 

The Cultural History of the Lau Islands

History of Fiji.

In about 1850, a Tongan prince called Enele Maʻafu invaded the Lau Islands and controlled them until 1874, when Fiji (including Lau) was ceded to Britain.

Indentured Indian labourers were imported to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, when the scheme was stopped. Over time, the Indian population increased to being more than half the population of Fiji, which triggered a series of race-based military coups led by native Fijians.

1987 Two Fijian coups d'état

2000 Fijian coup d'état

2006 Fijian coup d'état

2009 Fijian constitutional crisis

It has been estimated that more than 100,000 Fiji Indians have emigrated since 1987. That has reduced the proportion of Fijian Indians to 37.6% (2007 census).

Given its small population, the Lau Islands' contribution to the leadership of Fiji has been disproportionately large.

There has been a dispute between Fiji and Tonga about who owns Minerva Reefs. The Tongan Lands Minister Lord Ma’afu proposed to Fiji that Tonga gets the Lau Group in return for the Minerva Reefs. Lord Ma'afu is named after Enele Maʻafu. He died in December 2021.