History of the Pacific Islands islands to create Polynesia. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the islands as Polynesian navigation skills are recognised to have allowed deliberate journeys on double-hull sailing canoes or outrigger canoes. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in Tuvaluan. The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from the Samoan Islands into the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone to migration into the Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia and Micronesia. In 1568 Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña
Flag of the Gambier Islands Flag of the Gambier Islands The Flag of the Gambier Islands is the flag of the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean administered by France. In 1837, the seaman Armand Mauruc requested that King Maputeoa adopt a Gambier national flag to commence trade. The flag of the Gambier Islands is horizontally divided white-blue-white with five stars placed 2 (blue stars in the upper white stripe), 1 (white star in the middle blue stripe) and 2 (blue stars in the upper white stripe). The four blue stars in the corners represent the islands of Mangareva, Taravai, Aukena and