Wallis and FutunaWallis-et-Futuna

Lapita voyagers reached the islands about 3,000 years ago. Uvea, as Wallis is called locally, later fell under strong Tongan influence: in the 15th and 16th centuries Tongan invaders built stone forts on the island, and the restored ramparts of Talietumu in the south are the most visible trace. Futuna, 230 km away, stayed closer to Samoa in language and custom and resisted Tongan rule.

Dutch navigators Schouten and Le Maire sighted Futuna in 1616 and named the pair of islands after their home port of Hoorn. The British captain Samuel Wallis passed Uvea in 1767, and his name stuck to the island. Whalers and traders followed, but the decisive change came with French Marist missionaries in 1837.

On Futuna the Marist priest Pierre Chanel was killed in 1841 on the orders of a local king, whose son had converted. Within a few years Futuna had become Catholic, and Chanel was canonised in 1954 as the first martyr of Oceania. On Wallis, the mission gained the support of the royal line, and the church became the island's strongest institution.

The kings asked for French protection, and protectorate treaties were signed in 1887 and 1888. During the Second World War, US forces based thousands of troops on Wallis from 1942, building the airfield at Hihifo. In a 1959 referendum the islanders chose to become a French overseas territory, confirmed by a 1961 law that also recognised the three kingdoms. Since 2003 the status is 'overseas collectivity'.

The 1961 law gave Wallis and Futuna an unusual three-part government. The French state, represented by a senior administrator, handles defence, justice, public order, education and much of the budget. An elected territorial assembly votes on local matters. And three customary kingdoms, each with a king and a council of chiefs, keep authority over land and custom.

On Wallis the king is the Lavelua, chosen by the great chiefly families from among eligible lines and advised by a council of ministers. Futuna has two kingdoms: Alo in the east, whose king is the Tu'i Agaifo, and Sigave in the west, whose king is the Tu'i Sigave. The kings are paid by the French state, sit in the territorial council, and are consulted on laws that touch custom.

Succession is not by strict inheritance, and disputes are common. On Wallis a long quarrel over the throne after the death of King Tomasi Kulimoetoke in 2007 left rival claimants for years, and at times two men have claimed the title. Villages still send contributions to royal events, and custom courts settle land conflicts.

For visitors the practical meaning is simple. Land, beaches, lakes and lagoon islets belong to families under customary law, not to the state; people generally welcome respectful guests, but you should ask your host before visiting, and never enter palace grounds uninvited.

Almost everyone in Wallis and Futuna is Catholic, and the church sets the rhythm of the week and the year. Large stone or brightly painted churches stand in every village, built with communal labour and money from families in New Caledonia. Sunday Mass is full, and the singing, in Wallisian or Futunan with drums, is a highlight for visitors.

Custom life is organised around the katoaga, a feast in which villages bring pigs, root crops, mats and tapa to honour a king, a church event or a family occasion. Goods are piled, counted and redistributed by rank. The number of pigs killed for a big katoaga can run into the dozens.

Kava is the formal drink of these occasions. A royal or chiefly kava ceremony follows strict order: the drink is prepared in a large wooden bowl, and a caller names each recipient in turn by rank. Visitors should watch quietly and drink only if the cup is offered.

Tapa (bark cloth) and fine mats are women's wealth, as elsewhere in western Polynesia, and are exchanged at weddings, funerals and royal events. Many families keep stacks of them for the next ceremony.

Wallis is a low volcanic island ringed by a wide lagoon and some twenty islets. Its old craters hold lakes, the most dramatic being Lalolalo, an almost perfectly round lake with sheer walls in the south-west. Wartime stories say equipment was dumped into it as US forces left in 1946.

Futuna and uninhabited Alofi, its neighbour across a narrow strait, are steep, forested and fringed by reef rather than lagoon. Futunans cross to Alofi to tend gardens and fish; the island has long white beaches but no permanent village. Mont Puke on Futuna is the territory's highest point.

Work is scarce on the islands, and since the nickel boom of the 1960s and 1970s many Wallisians and Futunans have moved to New Caledonia. The community there, some 20,000 or more, outnumbers the population at home and plays a large part in Nouméa's life and politics. Its fortunes were shaken by the 2024 unrest in New Caledonia.

Tourism is almost absent. There are a few hotels and guesthouses, no tour industry and few flights, and most visitors are officials, family or French teachers and doctors. For travellers who plan around Aircalin's schedule and speak some French, it is one of the least visited places in the Pacific.