Tikopia

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Tikopia is the southernmost of the Santa Cruz Islands, located in the province of Temotu. It is also the southernmost of the Solomon Islands.

Tikopia and inset showing position

Tikopia is a high island, covering an area of 5 km² (2 sq. mi.). The island is the remnant of an extinct volcano, its highest point, Mt. Reani, reaching an elevation of 380 m (1,247 ft) above sea level.

The population of Tikopia is about 1,200. Historically the tiny island has supported a high-density population of a thousand or so. Strict reproductive policy prevented further increase. Unlike most of the Solomon Islands, the inhabitants are Polynesians, and their language Tikopian is a member of the Samoic branch of the Polynesian languages.

Tikopians practice an intensive permaculture system similar in principle to forest gardening, and the gardens of the New Guinea highlands. Their agricultural practices are strongly and consciously tied to the population density. For example, around 1600, the people agreed to slaughter all pigs on the island, and substitute fishing, because the pigs were taking too much food that could be eaten by people.

Unlike the rapidly westernizing society of much of the rest of Temotu province, Tikopia society is little-changed from ancient times. Its people take great pride in their customs, and see themselves as holding fast to their Polynesian traditions while they regard the Melanesians around them to have lost most of theirs.

Four chiefs reign over the islands of Tikopia and Anuta. The chiefs still hold court in their huts.

Tikopians have a highly developed culture with a strong Polynesian influence, including a complex social structure. The influence of Polynesian culture is not so far distant from local memory: it has not been so long since widespread infanticide was as natural and as necessary as sharing food and learning to dance. Because of these population control methods, pre-contact Tikopian society was described as idyllic. Its society was strongly communal: the sea was full of fish, the land grew excellent food, and the people supported one another.

New Zealand anthropologist, Raymond Firth, who lived on Tikopia in 1928 and 1929 found a "cult of virginity" and widespread infanticide among the islanders, whom he described as gentle and loving. Reproductive policy was particularly restrictive, however: only the eldest son in each family was allowed to have children and when an unwanted child was born, the face of the child was "turned down", a euphemism for infanticide. The most common method was the deliberate blocking of the infant's nasal passages by an adult's fingers.

Today, Firth's "cult of virginity" is long since gone. While the reasons for this might be regarded as due to the introduction of Christianity, there is an important demographic element as well: many of the young men leave the island, heading to either the Russell Islands or the national capital, Honiara, in search of work. As a result of this outflow of men, population control is less necessary.

Vegetation and human settlements in Tikopia were devastated following Cyclone Zoe's landfall in December 2002. Surprisingly, despite the extensive damage, no deaths were reported.