According to oral tradition, Tabiteuea has long been divided between autonomous districts or villages such as Tanaeang, known as aono.
One story describes the establishment of Tanaeang from a distant land in the west, Rôrô, led by the brothers Bouabaraki and Taningabaraki.
They built the village maneaba, which was completed by another group of ancestors, Bakoa and his three sons, Rairimoa, Rairimui and Tewatu.
[2] In 1933, Father Octave Terrienne and Brother Eloi built a Catholic stone church in Tanaeang.
However, the people prefer to use a larger church modelled after a maneaba, with cement pillars and a corrugated sheet metal roof.