Tuamotus

The Tuamotus, who call themselves Pa'umotu, are the Polynesian people of the Tuamotu Archipelago, nearly eighty atolls scattered across the South Pacific east of Tahiti. Settlers from the Society Islands reached these coral islands around the twelfth century and built marae ceremonial platforms of coral blocks on Rangiroa, Manihi and Mataiva. Their old religion venerated the creator Kiho.

They lived by fishing, coconut and breadfruit cultivation and pandanus weaving on islands whose only fresh water came from rain. Their Pa'umotu tongue, close to Tahitian, split into seven dialect areas as families moved between atolls.

Ferdinand Magellan made the first European sighting in 1521, and Queirós, Roggeveen, Cook and Kotzebue followed between 1606 and 1815. These visits did not alter a society that remained within the orbit of Tahiti's Pōmare dynasty, whose influence drew Pa'umotu toward the Tahitian language.