Vaitupu

Two woven balls hang in the air at once, and the malae is a wall of noise. This is te ano, Tuvalu's national game, played by all ages and genders. Captains bat the heavy pandanus balls between the teams, a point falls every time one touches the ground, and the first side to ten wins.

Vaitupu has the largest land area of Tuvalu's nine islands, 560 hectares that were home to just over a thousand islanders when the 2022 census counted. Its malae, the open meeting ground at the village's heart, is where te ano is played: each side fields a captain, the alovaka, and a catcher, the tino pukepuke, the only player allowed to hold the ball, while everyone else must keep two heavy pandanus-leaf balls off the ground with their hands. A side concedes a point when a ball drops, the first team to ten points wins, and the losers perform a song and dance to bring the winners back down to earth. The balls themselves are woven from pandanus leaf and packed with dry leaves, coconut husk, shell and stones. Vaitupu also hosts Motufoua Secondary School, Tuvalu's government boarding school, whose students come from across the country; beyond the malae, the island's extra land shows in its coconut groves, pulaka gardens and broad lagoon shore.