Niue 1774–1974: 200 Years of Contact and Change

Tiny Niue lies alone in the south Pacific, a single island with formidable cliffs rising from the deep ocean. Far from the main shipping routes and with a daunting reputation, “Savage Island” did not naturally invite visitors. Yet Niue has a surprisingly rich history of contact, from the brief landings by James Cook in 1774 through to the nineteenth-century visits by whalers, traders, and missionaries, and into the twentieth century when New Zealand extended its territory to include the Cook Islands and Niue.

To date, this story has not been told. Using a wide range of archival material from Niue, New Zealand, Australia, and Britain, Margaret Pointer places Niue center stage in an entertaining and thoroughly readable account of this island nation through to 1974, when Niue became self-governing. As important as the written story is the visual record, and many remarkable images are published here for the first time. Together, text and images unravel a fascinating and colorful Pacific story of Nukututaha, the island that stands alone.

• Margaret Pointer, Author

• Few writers have navigated this inequality as well as New Zealand historian Margaret Pointer in her masterful history of the Pacific Island state of Niue from the time of first European contact in 1774 to the dawning of self-governance in 1974. . . . Niue 1774-1974 offers a highly enjoyable and well-documented narrative of an island people’s struggle for recognition and respect over two centuries. . . . This fascinating book will appeal to those with general interests in Pacific Island history (including its photographic history) and in New Zealand’s Pacific colonial era.
  —Island Studies Journal