Guide to Wallis & Futuna Islands

Wallis and Futuna is an overseas community of France consisting of two small island groupings in Polynesia, near Fiji and Samoa.

Wallis and Futuna comprises two archipelagoes:

Hoorn Islands group (also known as the Futuna Islands, and as Îles Horne)

• Futuna Island (pop.~5,000)
• Alofi Island (uninhabited)

Alofi Island is the smaller of the two. According to legend it was as densely inhabited as Futuna up until the 19th century, when the Futuna people slaughtered and ate the population in a single raid.

Wallis Islands group (also known as ʻUvea, as is Wallis Island)

• Wallis Island (ʻUvea) (pop.~10,000)

Wallis Island is surrounded by 15 smaller islands, all of which are uninhabited.

• Mata-Utu (Matāʻutu) - capital of Wallis and Futuna, also capital of Hahake District, on Wallis Island
• Leava - the capital of the Sigavé chiefdom, and the third largest village on Futuna Island

The islands were settled by the Lapita culture around 800 BCE, the ancestors of today's Polynesian people. Although visited by the Dutch and the British in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was the French who declared a protectorate over the islands in 1842, making them a part of New Caledonia.

In 1959, the inhabitants of the islands voted to become a French overseas territory. There are still three ceremonial kingdoms within the territory: Alo, Sigave, Wallis.

The islands are volcanic in origin, with low hills, and fringing reefs. The highest point is Mont Singavi, at 765 m. The climate is tropical: hot, rainy season (November to April); cool, dry season (May to October); rains 2,500-3,000 mm per year (80% humidity); average temperature 26.6 °C.

The collectivité recognises three official languages: French, Wallisian ('Uvean) and Futunian. About three quarters of the population in Wallis is bilingual. All official documents are written first in French and then in the language of the local island.

English is not very widely spoken among the Wallisian population, though most of the French population knows at least basic conversational English. But the bottom line is that it is highly recommended to arrive with a working knowledge of French.

Wallis and Futuna is a part of France and implements French visa policy, but it is not part of the Schengen Area or the European Union and controls its own immigration. This means that travelling between metropolitan France and Wallis and Futuna will involve border inspections. French citizens only need a valid ID card to enter and stay indefinitely, including employment, but in practice they too need a passport to transit through other countries, unless flying from the French territory of New Caledonia.

Non-French European Union citizens may enter and stay in Wallis and Futuna indefinitely without a visa, provided their passport is valid for at least 3 months beyond their planned departure date, but may not work unless they have a work permit. Citizens of non-European Union countries who do not need a visa to visit France may visit without a visa for up to 3 months provided their passport is valid for at least 3 months beyond their planned departure date, and they have a return ticket, proof of funds to cover their stay, travel insurance with a minimum coverage of €30,000, and proof of purpose of stay (e.g. confirmation of hotel bookings if you are a tourist).

If you need a visa to visit France, Schengen visas for Metropolitan France are not valid for travel to Wallis and Futuna. You will need to obtain a separate visa for Wallis and Futuna from a French diplomatic mission.

By plane

The only point of entry by plane is Hihifo Airport on Wallis, which has two Aircalin flights per week to Nouméa, New Caledonia (3 hours), one of which stops over in Nadi, Fiji (1:30). Fares start from around 30,000 XPF one way.

By boat

There are no scheduled passenger services to Wallis and Futuna. They are also off the major cruise paths, but a few boats per year stop over.

The port of Mata-Utu is on Wallis. Leava (Sigave) is on Futuna.

Air Loyauté flies between Hihifo (Wallis) and Pointe Vele (Futuna) twice a day or so. There are no inter-island ferries.

Uvea has 120 km of roads, much of which is paved. All the main villages on Futuna can be accessed on paved but rough roads.

Tourism in the territory remains very low. This is mainly due to the isolation of the Wallis and Futuna islands, as well as the lack of outside investment in the islands and limited access to bank credit. At the same time, the territory has certain advantages:

• The islanders lead an authentic traditional lifestyle and hold large gatherings and ceremonies.
• The natural landscapes of the islands are well preserved: the crater lakes, islands and lagoons of the Wallis Islands, forests and beaches are very attractive.
• The cultural heritage is also great, with Tongan burial sites on Wallis and the tomb of Father Chanel at Poi, Futuna.

• Talietumu fort on Wallis, built by the Tongans in the 15th century.
• Lake Laloalo on Wallis, a volcanic lake that is almost perfectly circular.

However, these advantages are rarely exploited and, so far, the islands have only a six-hole golf course, a diving club and an aeroclub for ultralight aircraft.

Money

Costs

Banking facilities are limited, with no bank located on Futuna. Also, the BWF bank in Wallis will not directly change US $100 bills. Travelers are advised to do their currency exchanges in Nouméa, New Caledonia or Nadi, Fiji prior to arrival.

On Saint Peter Chanel's Day (Saint-Pierre-Chanel or locally Petelo Sanele), it is customary for piglets to be roasted with bananas.

Taro, yams and sweet potatoes were and still are the staple foods of most islanders. Fish is widely consumed in the villages on the Uvea coast. If for some reason there is no man in the family, women collect edible crustaceans from the lagoon. Pigs and chickens are fattened mainly for festive occasions.77

As a rule, families eat two meals a day. For breakfast they usually eat bread and drink coffee. Dinner consists of taro or yams and fish (on the Wallis Islands) and sometimes defrosted chicken and boiled beef. The most common drink is tea.77

Pork, chicken and turtle are an obligatory attribute of the festive table. Cava and imported alcoholic beverages are also consumed.

The locals pride themselves in how they pour a can of floating Widget Guinness to get the best creamy head. They also like to toast with a dram or 2 of Jamieson Black Barrel or a Captain Morgan Spice. They meet up on a Friday and talk a load of codswallop but also solve the world's problems.

Crime remains low throughout the territory and security is ensured by two gendarmerie stations, one in Mata Utu and the other in Leava. In addition to these twenty gendarmes, there are also territorial guards also under the direction of the senior administrator of the island, who play the role of municipal police officers.

Tap water is not potable. There are two hospitals and three dispensaries in the territory.

1. Sia Hospital BP 4G, Mata Utu (on Wallis Island), +681 72 07 00, email: sante.wf@wallis.co.nc (last updated Dec. 2020)
2. Kaleveleve Hospital BP 11, Leava (on Futuna Island) (last updated Dec. 2020)

Customary traditions are very important in the territory, particularly on the island of Futuna, where the inhabitants are very attached to the "kava ritual" widely used for divinatory purposes and, no doubt, because it contains six of the eighteen known kavalactones, for medicinal purposes.

The territory has a publicly owned postal and telecommunications company (SPT). The company provides island-wide mail delivery, a small number of stamps, and telephone and Internet services. The main post office is located at Mata Utu. On Uvea, there are two other offices in the districts of Mua and Hihifo. On Futuna Island, there is only one post office at Leawe. Initially, postal communication with the islands was via the now defunct New Hebrides or New Caledonia, but was irregular, depending on the frequency with which ships called at the islands. Regular postal service was not established until 1935 by means of postmen on a line connecting Wallis and Futuna to Sydney via the cities of Port Vila (present-day Vanuatu) and Noumea (New Caledonia).

Telephone and Internet

In June 2010, there were 1,300 Internet users on the islands (about 8.5% of the population). In the 2000s, the archipelago's connection to the global Internet was slow and expensive because it was via satellite. The arrival of the TUI-SAMOA fibre optic cable has made it possible to connect Wallis and Futuna to the global Internet with speeds comparable to those of the rest of the world. The country's Internet domain is .wf, although some official sites, such as public radio and television, tend to use the .fr domain.

Since 22 December 2015, Wallis and Futuna has had a mobile telephone network, called Manuia. Before this date, Wallis and Futuna was the last French overseas territory without a mobile network49. As journalist René Lataste sums up, "within a few decades, Wallis and Futuna will have made a giant leap in terms of communication. From the Tauasu under the Fale for centuries, through the landline telephone in the 1960s, to the Internet 30 years later. Today, the mobile phone and tomorrow a thousand-fold increase in connections.

From 1964 to 1971, the Bulletin d'information du territoire des îles Wallis et Futuna (Wallis and Futuna Territory Information Bulletin) was published.​ The weekly Te Fenua Fo'ou ceased publication in March 2002 following a dispute between the management and the editor of the publication, following an article published in the magazine on a local court case.​ Fenua magazine, launched in September 2002 to replacing it, had a very different editorial line. It also ceased publication in 2003. Since then, the only daily newspaper available is Les Nouvelles calédoniennes, which publishes two or three articles a week reporting on life in the Territory.