272 | Traditional medicine
Fiji and Samoa
These are two small (groups of) islands in the South Pacific. Both were
settled by their indigenous Melanesian or Polynesian people about
3000–4000 years ago and each became the focus of western attention in the
mid-nineteenth century when the British and others became aware of the
richness of the vegetation of the islands and their potential for trade.
Fiji
Fiji became a British colony in 1874, after which time the population mix
of the country was altered by the influx of Indians who were brought in by
the British as contract labourers. Fiji’s many islands are now home to about
900 000 people, about half of whom are Melanesian–Fijian and most of the
remainder Indo-Fijian.
Samoa
Samoa was also settled by British as well as German and American entre-
preneurs, although Britain ceded its territory to Germany in the early twen-
tieth century in exchange for the right to retain control over Fiji. New
Zealand took over from Germany after 1918 and controlled it until Samoan
independence in 1962. At this time, the name Samoa was accepted by the
United Nations as the official name of the two largest, western islands of the
country. Tuitila and other smaller islands to the east are still known as
American Samoa because they remain an unincorporated and unorganised
territory of the USA. The customs and practices of the 180 000 or so mainly
Polynesian people of the islands are very similar, however, as is their
approach to medicine.
New Zealand
New Zealand is a little larger than the UK but is populated by just over 4
million people. It is made up of a number of islands, the major ones being
known as North Island and South Island, respectively. Its native population,
the Maoris, arrived about 1000 years ago and its European (British) settlers
in the mid-nineteenth century (although it had been visited first by Dutch
explorers in the mid-seventeenth century). It is currently also home to a
number of other immigrant groups, notably Polynesian and Asians, mainly
from south-east Asia. Europeans are the predominant ethnic group now,
totalling about 78% at the last (2006) census, while Maoris make up 10%,
Asians 9% and Polynesian Pacific Islanders 6%. (The greater than 100%
total occurs because people of Maori descent can identify as both European
and Maori.)