Tuluma (fishing tackle box)

This is a tuluma, a wooden box used by fishermen from Tokelau to keep their fishing gear, cigarettes and other personal items dry while they are at sea. On land, tuluma are used as storage containers in the home, and sometimes presented as gifts and souvenirs to visitors from overseas.

Tuluma come in many sizes from the small examples that can sit in an outstretched hand, to the very large tuluma requiring two hands to carry. A distinctive feature of tuluma is a tightly fitting lid connected with a cord made from coconut fibre. The looped cord allows keeps the lid attached to the box should it be dropped or toppled while at sea. Most tuluma in Tokelau are made from the wood of the kanava tree.

One scholar suggests that the manufacture of tuluma in Tokelau may have originated with Hawaiian castaways wrecked off one of the atolls around 1830. Beautifully crafted boxes with fitting lids were seen in Hawaii from at least the late 1790s, so it is possible that Hawaiian sailors may have passed their skills on to their new hosts (1).

This tuluma was made by Elia Tinielu, a member of a Tokelau community group based in Porirua, New Zealand, with strong ties to the atoll of Atafu. The raw materials were brought to New Zealand from Tokelau by members of the Atafu group.

1. LANGDON, R. (1998). Fakaofo's Hawaiian Castaways of 1830 and the Origin of Its Lidded Boxes Called Tuluma. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 107(3), 287-300.