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Story: Tokelauans

Tokelauan families at Whakaue marae, 1966

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Tokelauan families at Whakaue marae, 1966

The Tokelauan families who arrived in New Zealand in December 1966 stayed the night at Whakaue marae in Maketū, on the Bay of Plenty coast, before moving to their new homes in Rotoehu, near Rotorua, where the men were employed by the New Zealand Forest Service. The Rotorua district still has a small population of Tokelauans in the 2010s.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Tokelauans – Communities, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/46729/tokelauan-families-at-whakaue-marae-1966 (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 29 January 2016, updated 1 March 2015.