Abstract:

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of ‘fishermen’s rocks’ scattered throughout the world. The Atafu one referred to is a flattish coral slab alongside a shallow channel leading over the reef by the village. It has long been the site of a lot of discussion about fishing. Hikuleo is a word embodying several interrelated meanings- ‘voice’, ‘accent’, ‘tone’ or ‘echo’. ‘Echo’ is the one that most effectively conveys the authors’ intentions – not a direct voice from the traditional past but one refracted by the effects of both time and distance. Fishing communities throughout the Pacific have their own bodies of knowledge about their marine environments and their own techniques for exploiting them. Much of this traditional knowledge survives in numerous places, simply because it is both useful and efficient. But it is also changing and, with the introduction of paid employment and the encroachment of a money economy, being completely abandoned in some places. The Atafu elders wrote mainly for the benefit of their children and grandchildren.