Tokelauans resist offers of autonomy

By DAVID FICKLING

Moves to give more independence to one of the world's smallest and last remaining colonies are being held up by opposition from an unexpected quarter - the population of the country itself.

Tokelau, an archipelago of three minuscule coral atolls 480km north of Samoa, is the only remnant of New Zealand's former Pacific colonies.

Its dozens of coral islets, never more than 200m wide and 5m above sea level, support a population of 1400 living mostly by subsistence farming and fishing.

Each atoll has a single village, and there are no harbours, no airstrips and no capital city.

Visitors can reach the islands only by the weekly boat making the 30-hour voyage from the Samoan capital Apia.

First settled by Polynesians about 1000 years ago, Tokelau became a British colony in 1889 and was passed to New Zealand in 1925. Since the mid-1970s attempts have been made to give the country its independence, but many Tokelauans now fear that the change could leave them unable to support themselves.

"There will only be self-determination when it suits Tokelau," said Fatu Tanasiasi, a consultant to the islands' Government. "We need to have our shipping and schools up to scratch. We expect the same level of healthcare that there is in a self-governing country. One of the key issues is the level of funding."

Tokelau's head of Government, Patuki Isa'ako, told a meeting of the United Nations Committee of 24 on decolonisation that the moves towards independence were being pushed by the UN and New Zealand rather than the people of Tokelau.

"Why would we want to declare to the international community we have self-determination?" he said.

"While we may work on intangibles such as pride of the people, pride of being self-determined, we've always asked the question, what's it for? Is it going to feed our mouths? Is it going to feed our children? What good is it for future generations?"

Life as a New Zealand colony has brought many benefits to the country.

There is no poverty, no unemployment, and full literacy. Although electricity does not run 24 hours a day, all houses now have internal flush toilets.

A handful of phone lines were connected in 1997. The money raised by the auction of the country's internet domain name has paid for a free high-speed internet cafe on Fakaofo atoll. From his house on Nukononu atoll, Luciano Perez has to walk just a few metres to reach the sea, where islanders go tuna fishing every Saturday.

He wants to see a change in the country's status only if its funding can be guaranteed.

"Independence is a good thing, but looking at the resources and things in Tokelau, I don't know that there's other things we've got to rely on. Our big provider is New Zealand," he said.

For an isolated group of islands whose main exports are handicrafts, stamps and coconut fibre, the $10 million annual aid from New Zealand makes the difference between poverty and wealth.

New Zealand has four times as many ethnic Tokelauans as living in the islands, a quarter of whom migrated in their lifetimes.

Minds have been concentrated on Niue in the months since Cyclone Heta devastated the nearby island in January.

A coral island of 1500 people which became independent from New Zealand in 1974, Niue has been struggling to rebuild itself in the wake of the cyclone.

Questions have been raised about whether Niue is still viable as an independent state, and one local politician is campaigning on a platform of re-integration with New Zealand.

Niueans have pointed to Tokelau as an argument in favour of re-integration, as New Zealand's aid to the islands over the past five years has been 20 per cent higher than that given to Niue.

Tokelau's Parliament agreed last year to look at shifting the country to self-governance in free association with New Zealand - the same status as Niue and the Cook Islands - but many islanders remain concerned about the pace of change.

The New Zealand-appointed administrator, Neil Walter, said the change of status would simply formalise the relationship which already existed between Tokelau and New Zealand.

But Judith Huntsman, an anthropologist at Auckland University who has studied Tokelau for nearly 40 years, said Tokelauan culture made the islanders wary of rushing into big decisions. "Tokelauans have a saying that you should do things slowly and with care - and that is even just with everyday things. People are unwilling to make an irrevocable move."