The Future of Tokelau : Decolonising Agendas 1975-2006

This book is a sequel to Tokelau: A Historical Ethnography and follows the history of the small Pacific nation from the 1970s up to the recent referendum in which the Tokelauans voted to remain a New Zealand dependency. It is an extraordinary story - a dramatic narrative in which officials, politicians and Tokelau elders all play their roles and the repeated clash of cultures leads to comic, bizarre and often disturbing outcomes. This is a superbly researched study of village social and political life in a modernising world, and also a brilliant critique of the United Nations and the way it conducts its affairs.