Tikopia - Settlements

The population is distributed in more than twenty nucleated villages, situated around the sandy coastal strip at the base of the hills; there is no settlement on the rocky northern coast. Houses are still of traditional pattern, built directly on the ground in rectangular shapes, with low palm-leaf thatched roofs on a timber frame, and doorways to be entered only on hands and knees. Earth floors are covered with plaited coconut-palm-leaf mats. Houses in a village are set irregularly, in no formal pattern, with canoe sheds adjacent, giving easy access to the sea. In the settlements abroad, housing is often of traditional style, but modern types also occur.