The Pukapuka is the northern remote atoll of the Cook Islands in Polynesia and consist of three islands. On main island Wale, there are three villages and is approximately 500 population. The island is small and flat with limited natural resources, but has been quite independent politically, economically and culturally. The atoll has been experiencing seasonal cyclones because of the location in the South Pacific, and obviously their scales are becoming stronger due to recent global warming. In fact, in 2005, Cyclone Percy, probably the most devastating natural disaster in half a century, struck Pukapuka and caused severe damage from the storm and high waves. The land and food resources were ruined and the population decrease was accelerated afterwards. However, the left residents managed to revitalize the island and sustain the local community. In the recovery process, the taro patches recovered from the seawater inundation were “recut”(kotikoti) or redivided and redistributed to the residents. In addition, three villages were reorganized in two in order to be able to carry out communal works in response to the decline of a population. Both were done with little difficulty because such a flexible attitude to the borders of the land and social groups had been nurtured in the local community as an intangible cultural heritage in the history. In other words, we can consider that the resilience embedded in the atoll island functions to the changes in the Anthropocene.
