Tuvalu

Polynesian voyagers, mainly from Samoa and Tonga, settled the atolls perhaps two to three thousand years ago; Nui, whose people speak a form of Gilbertese, has links to Kiribati. The name Tuvalu means 'eight standing together', for the eight islands that were traditionally inhabited; Niulakita, the ninth, was settled later.

European contact brought whalers, traders and disaster. In 1863 Peruvian slave ships took several hundred people from Funafuti and Nukulaelae, a blow from which some islands took generations to recover. Samoan pastors of the London Missionary Society arrived from 1861 and, within decades, the church became the centre of island life, which it still is.

Britain declared a protectorate in 1892, and from 1916 the islands were part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony run from Tarawa. In the Second World War US forces built an airfield on Funafuti in 1942–43 to support the push into the Gilberts; the pits dug for fill scarred the island until they were filled in 2015.

Polynesian Ellice Islanders, a minority in a colony dominated by the Micronesian Gilbertese, voted in 1974 to separate. The Ellice Islands became a separate colony in 1975 and independent Tuvalu on 1 October 1978, with the British monarch as head of state. Parliament has 16 members and no political parties; governments form and fall on shifting personal alliances.

Each island has its own traditional assembly of elders, the falekaupule, which meets in the maneapa, the large open-sided meeting house found in every village. Since 1997 the law has recognised the falekaupule as the local government of each island, making decisions on land, community work and island rules.

Family and island identity run deep. People on Funafuti still think of themselves as from Nanumea, Vaitupu or Niutao, and each island community in the capital has its own maneapa where it gathers for feasts, meetings and dances. Land is scarce and passes through families, so ownership disputes are common and sensitive.

Fatele is the music of these gatherings: seated singers and a wooden box beaten with the hands, standing dancers, and a tempo that builds verse by verse until it breaks off. Te ano, a team ball game, and feasting with pulaka and pork go with any big occasion.

Visitors are welcome to watch if invited. The rules are simple: enter when asked, sit on the floor with legs crossed, do not stand over seated elders, and accept food when offered.

Most of Tuvalu lies less than 3 metres above sea level. Scientists measure sea levels around Funafuti rising faster than the global average, and king tides already push water up through the porous coral, flooding gardens and the ground around the airstrip. Salt water damages the pulaka pits that were once the main food supply.

In 2021 foreign minister Simon Kofe gave his speech to the Glasgow climate summit standing knee-deep in the lagoon, an image seen around the world. Tuvalu has also argued that its statehood and sea boundaries should survive even if its land is lost, and launched a plan to preserve its culture and records digitally.

On the ground, the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project has built new raised land on the lagoon side of Fongafale, designed to stay above expected sea levels for generations. Sea walls and raised foundations are appearing across the capital.

The Falepili Union with Australia, in force since 2024, offers up to 280 Tuvaluans a year a path to live, work and study in Australia, and commits Australia to help in disasters and on security. Many Tuvaluans see it as insurance rather than a plan to leave; the stated aim of the government is to stay.

Funafuti's lagoon is about 18 km long and 14 km wide, ringed by more than thirty islets. Fongafale, the long thin islet where most people live, is often only a few dozen metres wide, with the calm lagoon on one side and the open ocean on the other.

The Funafuti Conservation Area, set up in 1996, protects about 33 km² of lagoon, reef and six islets on the western rim. Turtles nest there, seabirds roost on the islets, and fish life is visibly richer than near the town. Visits are arranged through the conservation office or a local boat owner.

The runway is the atoll's largest open space. When no plane is due, people play football, volleyball and rugby on it, ride motorbikes along it and sleep on it on hot nights. A siren and a fire truck clear it before each Fiji Airways arrival.

Fishing is both everyday food and the national income: licence fees paid by foreign tuna fleets fishing in Tuvalu's vast exclusive economic zone make up a large share of government revenue, alongside the Tuvalu Trust Fund and income from the .tv internet domain.