Untold Pacific History

The story of how groups of Samoans were taken to Germany at the turn of the century to be exhibited alongside the animals. The descendants of these families, Samoan historians and a museologist in Germany give their views on this little known part of Samoa’s history as a German colony. Watch the video version of the documentary series on the RNZ website or on YouTube Produced by Tikilounge Product...

The island sold for a bottle of gin, the iconic music of Te Vaka, and the lost ancestors of a New Zealand territory in the Pacific, all intertwine in the extraordinary story of Olohega Island. Won by an American whaler during a contentious card game, the Pacific Island that has never been returned to its people sits in the middle of a New Zealand territory in the Pacific. Watch the video version o...

This is the remarkable true story of six boys who ran away from their strict boarding school in Tonga in 1965, taking a boat for what they thought would be a short adventure. A violent storm damaged their vessel, leaving them adrift at sea without food or water for eight days. Watch the video version of the documentary series on the RNZ website or on YouTube Produced by Tikilounge Productions and...

Back with three remarkable yet little-known events that have shaped Pacific lives and legacies, Untold Pacific History returns for season 3. Spanning Samoans displayed in a German zoo, teenagers who survived 15 months on a deserted island, and a Tokelauan island sold for a bottle of gin, this season will explore these extraordinary stories in Pacific history. These stories reveal how Pacific peopl...

Papa Tom, an extraordinary Cook Islander who smashed new frontiers in space and the ocean in a life that spanned many fields of work. Watch the video version of the episode here. Papa Tom's quest for truth, history, and culture has taken him around the world and even out to space, but it was in Aotearoa and the Cook Islands that it all began... The extraordinary Cook Islander, the first perso...

The life story of I'iga Pisa, an independence activist who sailed hundreds of kilometers in a small canoe to escape exile from Samoa. *This story was updated on 9/5/2024 to clarify details regarding I'iga Pisa's life. Watch the video version of the episode here. In 1909, Samoan independence activist I'iga Pisa was condemned to exile in Saipan by the German colonisers of Western Samo...

This is the little known story of The Forgotten Soldiers of Niue: 150 men plucked from their island paradise and sent 17,000 kms away to the cold frontlines of France during World War I. The Niuean soldiers never made it to the frontline, however. They instead died en route with the introduction of diseases they had never been exposed to. Watch the video version of the episode here. Go to this epi...

Told in three separate stories, season two of Untold Pacific History shines a light on key events in the Niue, Samoa and Rarotonga that have been little told in Aotearoa. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

This episode examines how and why Indian populations were brought to Fiji, and how the inequities under the colonial government's Girmit system, created a society of instability and countless coups. Watch the video version of the episode here. Delving into the legacy of the colonial history that underpins much of the racial disharmony in modern day Fiji, this episode examines some of the fraught f...

This is a story of indigenous land rights gone awry, a makutu from an aggrieved family and the failed business ventures of an infamous 'haunted hotel' in Rarotonga. Watch the video version of the episode here. In pre-colonial times, it was the scene of bloody battles between rival tribes, and ancient spirits are said to patrol the area. It is also the subject of a bitter ownership dispute that dat...

This episode examines the fatal consequences of New Zealand's rule in Samoa, and the key events that led to the rise of Samoa's 'Mau' resistance movement. Watch the video version of the episode here. The Mau became a revolutionary movement for Samoa's independence against New Zealand's brutal period of colonial administration. In what is possibly one of the most significant stories of Ne...

What led Commissioner Larsen, the New Zealand administrator of Niue in the 1950s, to be murdered in his bed by three locals hell-bent on justice and revenge? 25/05/2021: We have updated this file with an acknowledgement of the death of Alapasa Nemaia who sadly passed away after the filming of this video and the important contribution she made to this story. Watch the video version of the episode h...

Of the many events affecting Pasifika people in Aotearoa, the Dawn Raids story is overdue to be told. Watch the video version of the episode here. Long whispered about in secret family conversations, people have heard the words 'Dawn Raids' but not what really happened. In this critical examination of a time little-known in New Zealand's social history, this piece features key talen...

A dynamic & often provocative account of New Zealand's relationship with the Pacific & the broad impact it's had on New Zealand's own history & relationship with Pacific peoples in Aotearoa today. Untold Pacific History is a dynamic and often provocative account of New Zealand's relationship with the Pacific and the broad impact it's had on New Zealand's own history and relationship...