Editing Rotuma (section)

== History ==

=== Origins according to oral history ===

Rotuma was first inhabited according to record by people of [[Tahiti Nui]], [[Marquesas]], and [[Rapa Nui]]. At that time, it was known as Siria. Little was known about the exact years of migration from these far Eastern Kingdoms of those times. The only information known was that Rotuma was used by these three Kingdoms as the royal burial ground for the Kings and Queens of Tahiti Nui and Rapa Nui.

Rotuma was known as Siria by the indigenous peoples of Tahiti Nui and Rapa Nui as it was named after the star which lies exactly above the location of the island. Thus, the people of those days prayed to a mythical figure known as [[Tagaroa Siria]]. In remembrance of this old royal burial ground, a certain species of seaweed was given as a token of blood ties to remember the old and special bonds between Tahiti Nui and Rotuma. This particular species of seaweed is a delicacy amongst the islands, but it only grows on Tahiti and Rotuma. This seaweed species was said to be given by a Princess of [[Bora Bora]]. The princess' name was Teura ("redness") of Bora Bora, who married the legendary Prince [[Te-Fatu]] of Rotuma.

The first foreigner to arrive in Rotuma is sometimes named in oral tradition as Bulou ni Wasa, who arrived with her seven brothers. The name of the canoe that brought her and her family was known as ''Rogovoka''. Her brothers left her on the island and made their way to Fiji. When she disembarked on Rotuma onto a rock which her priests called Vatu Vonu (Haf kafaghoi ta), the rulers of Rotuma are said to have immediately given her the name Tafatemasian, coincidently the same meaning as Adi Rarama ni Wasa (a spirit encircled with light). Without meeting her, some say Prince Sarefua and Princess Tefuimena decided that she be installed immediately as the ruler of the island as a gesture of welcome and therefore persuaded her to stay and rule the island.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Later settlers of the islands are believed to have come from [[Samoa]], and were led by a man named Raho. In 1896, the scholar Friedrich Ratzel recorded a Samoan legend about Samoans' relationship to Rotuma:<ref>[http://www.inquirewithin.biz/history/american_pacific/oceania/legends.htm The History of Mankind] by Professor Friedrich Ratzel, Book II, Section A, The Races of Oceania page 173, MacMillan and Co., Ltd., published 1896</ref>

<blockquote>"Thus the Samoans relate that one of their chiefs fished in the vicinity of Rotuma and then planted coco-palms on the main island. In a later migration the chief Tokaniua came that way with a canoe full of men and quarrelled with the Samoan chief Raho about who had the right of possession."</blockquote>

=== Rotuman Revolution ===

While Tongan forces invaded and occupied the island at one point in the 17th century, managing to consolidate their hold over the island and its people, eventually the Rotumans rebelled. According to the Acting-Resident Commissioner of Rotuma W.E. Russell, Rotumans ultimately [[revolution|overthrew]] their Tongan occupiers in a bloody uprising that took place over a single night.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Russell |first1=W.E. |title=Rotuma: Its History, Traditions and Customs |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |date=1942 |volume=51 |issue=4 |page=234}}</ref>

===European contact===

[[Tupaia (navigator)|Tupaia]]'s Map is among the most important artifacts to have come from late 18th-century European–Indigenous encounters in the South Pacific region and features, in Epeli Hau‘ofa's terms, a "sea of islands" extending for more than 7,000&nbsp;km from Rotuma in the west to Rapa Nui in the east and more than 5,000&nbsp;km from Hawai‘i in the north to New Zealand in the south. The earliest known confirmed [[Europe]]an sighting of Rotuma was in 1791, when [[Captain (naval)|Captain]] [[Edward Edwards (Royal Navy officer)|Edward Edwards]] and the crew of [[HMS Pandora (1779)|HMS ''Pandora'']] landed in search of sailors who had disappeared following the [[Mutiny on the Bounty|Mutiny on the ''Bounty'']]. Some scholars have suggested that the first European to sight the island was, instead, [[Pedro Fernandes de Queirós]]; his description of an island he sighted is consistent with the characteristics and location of Rotuma. However, this possibility has not been conclusively substantiated.

===France, Catholicism, and Coquille===

[[Image:Louis Charles Arsenne - Portrait de René Primevère Lesson.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Frenchman [[René Lesson]] whose sharing of his beliefs in 1824 was recorded as the first such occasion on the island. This act effectively rendered French Catholicism the first religion to reach [[Rotuman people|Rotumans']] ears.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Irava |first1=Ieli |title=Hanuạ Pumue |date=1991 |publisher=Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific |isbn=9820200350 |page=11}}</ref>]]

In 1824, French surgeon and naturalist [[René Lesson]] arrived in Rotuma onboard the vessel ''Coquille''. Lesson observed that the Rotumans had no awareness of an afterlife; his revelation of such an idea therefore made French Catholicism, the official religion of the state of his employ, the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Kingdom of France]], the first faith shared with the Rotumans.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Irava |first1=Ieli |title=Hanuạ Pumue |date=1991 |publisher=Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific |isbn=9820200350 |page=11}}</ref> His catechising would subsequently be formalised and reinforced by French [[Society of Mary (Marists)|Marists]] two decades later, most especially in the formerly conjoined [[chiefdom]]s of Faguta, [[Pepjei]] and [[Juju]], as well as extending into neighbouring districts, especially [[Itu{{okina}}ti{{okina}}u]].

===Whaling===

A favorite of whaling ships in need of reprovisioning, in the mid-nineteenth century Rotuma also became a haven for runaway sailors, some of whom were escaped convicts. Some of these deserters married local women and contributed their genes to an already heterogeneous pool; others met violent ends, reportedly at one another's hands. The first recorded whaleship to visit was the ''Loper'' in 1825, and the last known visit was by the ''[[Charles W. Morgan (ship)|Charles W. Morgan]]'' in 1894.<ref>Langdon, Robert (1984), ''Where the whalers went: an index to the Pacific ports and islands visited by American whalers (and some other ships) in the 19th century'', Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, p.209. {{ISBN|086784471X}}</ref> Rotuma was visited as part of the [[United States Exploring Expedition]] in 1840.

===Tongan invasion and the Wesleyan agenda===

In the 1850s and 1860s, the Tongan prince [[Enele Maʻafu|Ma'afu]] claimed possession of Rotuma and sent his subordinates to administer the main island and its neighboring islets. Ma'afu had earlier made a serious effort to spread his Wesleyan beliefs to eastern Fiji and the Tongan invasion of Rotuma allowed him to consolidate its hold over a new group, the Rotumans in the north of the island.<ref>[https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-TuvAcco-t1-body1-d53.html "The Rotuman People"], p.&nbsp;4, in Te{{okina}}o Tuvale, ''An Account of Samoan History up to 1918''</ref>

===Cession to Britain===

[[Methodism|Wesleyan]] missionaries from [[Tonga]] arrived on Rotuma in June 1841, followed by [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Society of Mary (Marists)|Marists]] in 1847. The Roman Catholic missionaries withdrew in 1853 but returned in 1868. Conflicts between the two groups, fuelled by previous political rivalries among the chiefs of Rotuma's seven districts, resulted in hostilities that led the local chiefs in 1879 to ask [[United Kingdom|Britain]] to annex the island group. On 13 May 1881, Rotuma was officially ceded to the [[United Kingdom]], when the British flag was hoisted by [[Hugh Romilly]]. The event is annually celebrated as [[Rotuma Day]].

In 1881, a group of Rotuman chiefs travelled to Levuka, Ovalau, Fiji, to meet Queen Victoria's official representative to complete the process of cession. A memorial to the seven chiefs and their mission is located in the District of [[Itu{{okina}}ti{{okina}}u]]. In response to the cession, Queen Victoria bestowed the name of Albert on the [[paramount chief]] at the time - Gagaj Vaniak - in honour of her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who had died twenty years before. In June 2017, [[Pene Saggers]] (née Enasio) met with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and together they spoke about the links between their ancestral lines and the cession of Rotuma.

After Rotuma was ceded to the United Kingdom, it was governed as part of the Colony of Fiji. Rotuma remained with Fiji after Fiji's independence in 1970 and the military coups of 1987.