Anaa Islanders

History May Explain Lack of Cordiality

WHEN Te Rangi Hiroa went to the is land of Anaa, in the Tuamotus, he records in his book (“Vikings of the Sunrise”) that, “The people, while not exactly morose, showed none of the cordiality so characteristic of the Poly

nesian people. , , .

“I found out afterwards that their lack of vocal expression was regarded by the rest of the Tuamotu as being peculiar to Anaa. , . , “One of the crew said ‘The torea bird makes a noise in the mornings and even ings when anybody goes near it’.

“ ‘What about it?V I asked. ‘Weir, he replied, ‘there are no torea on Anaa’.”

In going through Doctor B. G. Corney’s copious notes, the writer has come upon the following bits of history concerning this island.

At the time it was seen by the Spanish voyagers and by Cook, “Anaa was the most populous and the most productive, as weli as politically the chief, island of the Tuamotu archipelago.

“It is probably identical with La Sagi taria, of Quiros, and was next seen by Lieut. Cook in H.M.S. ‘Endeavor’, on the 9th April, 1769, who named it ‘Chain’ Is land.

“From what we now know, as matters of history and tradition, the Anaa people were sea-rovers, and frequently raided the smaller islands of the Tuamotu group, be ing strong enough and feared enough to obtain what they wished for by force, rather than by barter or peaceable com merce.

“Their pre-eminence arose mainly, no doubt, from the greater productiveness of their atoll, owing to its size and the nature of the soil on it. Hence they were better fed than most, their struggle for life was comparatively easy, they became pros perous, wealthy, ambitious, autocratic and warlike. They had also the best supply of timber, built longer and more sea worthy canoes than their neighbours and ventured farther afield, not only to Tahiti (which they once designed to con quer and did actually invade, but con sented after a parley, not to molest) but even to the windward atolls of Hao, Vairaatea and Nukutavake. Possessing, with these advantages, a teeming popu lation, leavened perhaps by a measure of inborn truculence above their neighbours, it is not surprising that the islanders of Anaa, as a community, should have gained an ascendancy over most other natives of the Tuamotu archipelago (ex cepting those of Fa’arava and Ra’iroa).”

A.C.R.