Niue’s villages are the focus of Internet Niue’s current sponsorship programme. The IUSN Foundation that funds Internet Niue presents a $500 grant to each village council at the village’s annual show day. Foundation chief executive Per Darnell says the wifi service is free to villagers, but transmitters are normally hosted on land or buildings under … Read more …
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Speaking up for the Pacific
20 April 2013Internet Niue and its service provider RockET Systems have been speaking up in international forums on behalf of internet users in Niue and the wider Pacific. RockET director Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui says it’s important that the global internet community is constantly reminded of the internet access issues faced by small Pacific Islands. “Satellite connections such as … Read more …
Linking with our Pacific friends
22 November 2012Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui, director of Internet Niue’s service provider RockET Systems Limited, has been elected to the board of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the world-wide Internet Society (PICISOC). He will also serve as PICISOC secretary for two years. The chapter, which represents the interests of Oceania-Pacific internet users, seeks to provide impartial and relevant advice … Read more …
Fascinating Niue
Niue the fierce
The first European explorer to attempt a landing on Niue was Captain James Cook in June 1774. He and his crew were forcefully repelled by parties of fearsomely attired men uttering blood curdling screams and brandishing spears with the purpose of repelling these visitors, for fear that they would bring diseases – a fate that befell other Pacific cultures that were more welcoming of European explorers.
Hastily leaving after little actual combat, Cook called the place “Savage Island,” a name that appeared on maps into the twentieth century.
At the time of Cook’s arrival, Niue had already been populated for several centuries by Tongans in the south, Cook Island Maori in the west and Samoans in the north. The people of the north were known as motu and those of the south were known as tafiti. They were staunch enemies, and the forests of the island were laced with tracks used by raiding parties searching for food and women to steal.
The Niuean language is related to other western Polynesian languages, such as Samoan and Tongan, with slight pronunciation differences between the north and the south. Most Niueans today speak Niuean and English.
Source: Niue by Charles Cooper. Reed Children’s Books, 2000. ISBN 1869488490
