Niue Language Week

Fakalofa lahi atu!

Sunday 13 – Saturday 19 October 2024 is Faahi Tapu he Vagahau Niue, Niue Language Week.

_{Header image: Hat made by Molie Eva Huka; AWMM 2019.31.11, 837.}

Fakalofa lahi atu kia mutolu oti. Fakaue fakamua ke he Atua kua feleveia pehe nei ke folafola atu e tau manatu ke he Vagahau mahuiga mo e tokiofa he motu ha tautolu ne fakataoga aki e tau tagata Niue ko e leo vagahau. Ko e Faahi Tapu Vagahau Niue a nei.

This is Niue Language Week and we proudly celebrate and treasure our language as one core indicator of our heritage. We share with you samples and snapshots of Niue materials in the form of writing, photographs, handicrafts and collection objects from the Museum.

Niue Language Week Competition

PAST EVENT

To celebrate Niue Language Week 2024 we hosted a competition to win one of two Museum Store vouchers worth $100!

To go in the draw to win, visitors to the Pacific Lifeways Gallery scanned the QR code to enter 3 questions using information from the Niue case.

Community Drop-in

PAST EVENT

Come admire a selection of Niuean textile and fibre treasures from our collection at our special Niuean community drop-in on Wednesday 16 October. Interact with these cherished taonga and learn more about Niuean material culture during these intimate sessions between 10.30AM - 3.30PM. Sessions are limited to 8 people and must be booked in advance.

Click the link below to find out more about Te Aho Mutunga Kore.

TE AHO MUTUNGA KORE

Palāhega. Plume made out of parakeet feathers. Niue. Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 8326.1

Tokanga'i 'o e tapa'i ngatu

Learn how to care for your hiapo at home. Click here to view this information in another language.

Tokanga'i 'o e tapa'i ngatu

Ko e tau levekiaga fakataitai nai moua mai he kaina fakamotu mo e tau manako ke puipui e hiapo ke he loga e tau tau. Fakakite mai e lautolu e tau kakano ka malona e hiapo haau mo e falu a puhala ke muitua ki ai ke nakai malona pihia e haipo haau. Putoia ai foki e tau puhala ne mitaki ke toka po ke fakatātā ke he haau a kaina ke ua malona e hiapo.

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_{Tapa by Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss}

Levekiaga ke he tau koloa magafoa mo e tagata

If you would prefer to access this information in another language, click here to see the other options.

Ko e tau koloa tokiofa he tau magafaoa ko e mena mahuiga lahi ke iloa ko hai a tautolu mo e omai i fe a tautolu. Ko e tau koloa nai tuga ia e tau ata, tau pepa ata, tau tohi mo e tau laupepa mahuiga ke he magafaoa.

To leva e toka he tau koloa nai ka mitaki e tau levekiaga mo e tau fakaaogaaga ki ai. Hanai falu a tau puhala ke lagomatai ia mutolu ke leveki mo e puipui e tau koloa mahuiga nai.

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_{Ku a liu onoono atu ke he tau koloa tokiofa mo e takitaki fakamua he PIERC ko Le Mamea Taulapapa Sefulu Ioane he matakavi 1970.}

BLOG

Seeing the connections with a Hiapo lens

Growing collections that connect with the communities of Tāmaki Makaurau is important gahua (work) here at the Museum. Adding items that can provide connection and inspiration relating to akau magafoa (genealogy), vagahau Niue (language) or koloa (cultural objects) is part of an ongoing conversation with community, artists and academics immersed in everything Niuean.

_{Blog by Paula Legel, Associate Curator Heritage Publications & Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss, Hiapo maker}

Explore stories from Online Cenotaph about Niuean service personnel.

ONLINE CENOTAPH

Chaplain Heketaha Uea and Niue’s contribution to WWI

Chaplain Uea was age 40, the oldest of the 150 Niuean men who, keen to help ‘the Kingdom of King George’, joined the New Zealand Māori Contingent. Uea was a natural leader. He was their Sergeant Major and something of a father figure to the Niuean men. Importantly, he was one of the few who could speak English.

Information about Chaplain Uea is on display in Pou Maumahara, Level 2. The Niuean Bible, included in the case, "Ko e Tohi Tapu: Ko e Maveheaga Tuai mo e Maveheaga Fou" (1966) is kindly on loan from Taha Fasi.

Niue's service personnel

After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the people of Niue offered a contingent to serve with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF), an offer that was taken up in mid-1915. Learn more about these servicemen and those who served in later conflicts at Online Cenotaph.

Early-1960s Niue by Harry Coleman

Auckland Museum holds a collection of close to 400 images of Niue in the early 1960s by New Zealander and WW2 veteran, Harry Alexander Coleman (1913-1995). View a selection of these images chosen by Leone Samu (Associate Curator, Documentary Heritage, Pacific Collections) then learn more about him via the link below.

Gallery (click to expand)

A crowd in front of a stall. AWMM neg. M1631-5. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Group of teenagers at a stall. AWMM neg. M1632-5. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Group photo, men and boys. AWMM neg. M1648-3. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16.
Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Niuean Policeman. AWMM neg. M1632-1. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Older woman holding two coconuts. AWMM neg. M1640-1. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Portrait of hospital staff. AWMM neg. M1632-10. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Some of these women in this image have been identified (view our blog below this section for names). Please let us know if you can identify anyone any further, or make any corrections. Fakaaue lahi.

Social meal in a hall. AWMM neg. M1660-10. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Two men in a motorised out rigger canoe. AWMM neg. M1659-3. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Women at a sewing display. AWMM neg. M1632-6. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Woven baskets on ship deck. AWMM neg. M1655-6. Harry Coleman (1960). PH-1993-16. Please let us know if you can identify anyone in the image. Fakaaue lahi.

Niue in pictures

Leone Samu (Associate Curator, Documentary Heritage, Pacific Collections) takes looks at Niue through the lens of Harry Coleman, a public servant, radio operator, and founder for the government-issued bilingual Tohi Tala Niue newsletter.

^{Image: Coleman, Harry (1960s) Performance in festive costume. Auckland War Memorial Museum neg. M1660.9}

The wild plants of Niue

The Auckland Museum Herbarium holds over 400 plant specimens from Niue, dating back to 1877. The main collectors are: Henry A. Mair, a New Zealand sea-trader, who collected 35 ferns there in 1877; S. Percy Smith, a New Zealand civil servant and amateur ethnologist, who collected 125 mainly flowering plants in 1901; and botanist Rhys Gardner, research associate of Auckland Museum, who collected a similar number in 2005.

Gallery (click to expand)

<b>Woody 2 m-high shrub with edible fruit</b><br>
<b>Lukumoka, lukumaka, lokufufu, loka moka</b>; <em>Solanum repandum</em><br>
“Once a self-sown food plant in old gardens, now possibly extinct on Niue” (Gardner 2011). Perhaps a pre-European introduction from E Papa New Guinea/Solomon Islands. Note: Smith’s 1901 specimen records the name “lukumoka”. “In Niue today the name <i>loku</i> is used for pawpaw, which like <em>S. repandum</em> has lobed leaves and yellow, edible fruit” (Gardner 2011).

<b>Small coastal bush</b><br>
<b>Tiale feutu, tiale tafa</b>; <em>Bikkia tetrandra</em><br>
A plant of the coastal splash zone with impressive 10 cm long, tubular, white flowers. Niue is its eastern geographical limit in the Pacific.

<b>A vine-like scrambler</b><br>
<b>Feteka tea<b>; <em>Canavalia sericea</em><br>
Usually near the coast, flowers rose-coloured, fruit a thick pod.

<b>Low vine or scrambling bush</b><br>
<b>Pāmoko</b>; <em>Capparis cordifolia</em><br>
The leaves are greyish, the large flowers open during the night (insect pollinated?), at first white, then fade to pink by the following afternoon. Closely related to the edible capers of commerce.

Gardner published two personally-illustrated books on the flora: Trees and Shrubs of Niue (2011) and Ferns and herbs of Niue (2013); and two papers in 2021 on the flora: The naturalised flora of Niue and The native vascular plants of Niue, SW Pacific. There are no known plants endemic to Niue.

Gallery (click to expand)

Gardner, R.O. 2013: <em>Ferns and herbs of Niue</em>. Katsura, Auckland.

Gardner, R.O. 2011: <em>Trees and shrubs of Niue</em>. Katsura, Auckland.

Lukumoka in Gardner, R.O. 2011: <em>Trees and Shrubs of Niue. Katsura, Auckland</em>. 244p.

Rhys Gardner at work in the Auckland Museum Herbarium.

FAAHI TAPU HE VAGAHAU NIUE ARCHIVE

See more

Visit our archive of Niue Language Week content from previous years.

_Image:_{Coleman, Harry (1960s) Harvesting taro. Auckland War Memorial Museum neg. M1658.1.}

Visit the archive

Your Museum

Niue Language Week

Fakalofa lahi atu!

Sunday 13 – Saturday 19 October 2024 is Faahi Tapu he Vagahau Niue, Niue Language Week.

Fakalofa lahi atu kia mutolu oti. Fakaue fakamua ke he Atua kua feleveia pehe nei ke folafola atu e tau manatu ke he Vagahau mahuiga mo e tokiofa he motu ha tautolu ne fakataoga aki e tau tagata Niue ko e leo vagahau. Ko e Faahi Tapu Vagahau Niue a nei.

Niue Language Week Competition

Community Drop-in

Tokanga'i 'o e tapa'i ngatu

Learn how to care for your hiapo at home. Click here to view this information in another language.

Tokanga'i 'o e tapa'i ngatu

Levekiaga ke he tau koloa magafoa mo e tagata

If you would prefer to access this information in another language, click here to see the other options.

Seeing the connections with a Hiapo lens

Stories of service

Explore stories from Online Cenotaph about Niuean service personnel.

Chaplain Heketaha Uea and Niue’s contribution to WWI

Niue's service personnel

Early-1960s Niue by Harry Coleman

Gallery (click to expand)

Niue in pictures

The wild plants of Niue

Gallery (click to expand)

Gallery (click to expand)

See more