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
United Church in the Solomon Islands and the LMS people. The United Church acquired people of Reformed background too. After independence of Solomon Islands in 1978 a movement in Bougenville seeking secession from Papua New Guinea disrupted communication with within the church. Half of the church in the Solomon Islands and in Papua New Guinea separated from the Church in 1996. The church in the Solomon Islands maintained connection with the World Council of Churches, Pacific Conference of Churches. It has 50,000 members and 300 congregations. Member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Council of Churches and the Council for World Mission. United