Ethnology of Tokelau Islands

Music and Dancing

Music and Dancing

The skin-covered drum is in type and name ( pahu) an eastern Polynesian instrument appearing only at Tokelau in the western islands.

The peculiar processional dance performed by a file of dancers in tripping steps is also danced in the Ellice Islands and has been noted by Burrows (5) as a Samoan dance, and by Wilkes (34) as a dance of Nonuti in the Gilbert Islands. The modern dances and the old paddle dances are common throughout western Polynesia.