[3] On 9 May 1824 a French government expedition under Captain Louis Isidore Duperrey of the ship La Coquille sighted Nanumaga.

[6] Louis Becke, who later became a writer, became the resident trader for the Liverpool firm of John S. de Wolf and Co. on Nanumaga from about April 1880 until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone.

[13] In 1986 it became a centre of debate when Pacific archaeologists discovered the submerged Caves of Nanumanga, and found what they argued was the remains of fire created by pre-historic inhabitants.

The Nanumaga landscape consists of the main village settlements of Tonga and Tokelau, the two main pits for swamp taro (Cyrtosperma merkusii), (known in Tuvalu as Pulaka), the mangrove forest surrounding the internal lagoons and the areas of general vegetation which includes coconuts, pandanus trees and other vegetation types.

A causeway has been construct to the south of Vaiatoa Lagoon linking the village areas of Tonga and Matematefaga.

The mangrove forest of the northern Vaiatoa lagoon covers an area approximately 20 hectares.

[18] A sea mount located just off the northern tip of the island is an important key fishing ground, which has been declared a ‘no anchor zone’.

One of their key issues was the additional burden of social care that women take on in the aftermath of natural disasters.