Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the parallel but entangled domains of religious and political transformation on the Polynesian island of Niue through three distinct historical periods: 1846-1860, conversion; 1861-1900, missionisation; and 1901-1974, colonialism.

Paper long abstract:

After a long period of resisting incursions by outsiders, between 1846 and 1861 the nearly 4,500 residents of the Polynesian island of Niue accepted Christianity, mainly through the efforts of Samoans attached to the London Missionary Society. Soon they formed the apex of an emergent new social order, drafting laws, translating scripture, teaching literacy, constructing roads, establishing villages, building churches, and generally living as a privileged elite.

But things changed from 1861, with the arrival of an English resident pastor. Soon the Samoans were returned to their homeland, to be replaced by a cadre of Niue-born-and-trained teachers, who over the next four decades - like their community as a whole - remained firmly under the thumb of the pastor. Over the same period traders established themselves in villages, droves of young men went off as indentured labourers, and the island's elders periodically called for Niue to become a British protectorate.

Then in 1901 Britain facilitated New Zealand becoming the island's colonial ruler. From then on, until Niue achieved self-rule in 1974, the resident missionary vied for power with the New Zealand representative (both always foreign, white, males). Over three generations the colonial state responded by enabling other Christian denominations to establish themselves, creating a secular education system to replace the LMS schools, empowering new political bodies to counter traditional church organisations, and building a local public service that offered better employment and career paths than could be provided by the LMS.