1 Rutger Bregman's written a fascinating account of a group of castaways on the Tongan island of 'Ata for the Guardian. But the story has a much darker historical background than Bregman's article lets on. (thread) https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1259050383638437888

2 Bregman tells the story of the group of Tongan teens who stole a boat from Nuku'alofa harbour, got caught in a storm, were wrecked on the remote southern island of 'Ata, & survived for many months before a fisherman rescued them. But how were the boys able to survive?

3 The story of the 'Atan castaways was first told by Keith Willey in his book Naked Island nearly half a century ago. Willey's book includes a crucial detail that Bregman leaves out of his article.

4 'Ata is surrounded by cliffs, & it took the castaways weeks to find a route to the island's interior. Once they reached the island's high plateau, though, they found plentiful food. As Willey noted, the boys were repopulating an ancient Tongan village called Kolomaile.

5 The Guardian has unhelpfully illustrated Bregman's article with a photo of the wrong island. There are two 'Atas in Tonga: one is a cosy atoll near Nuku'alofa, the other is the remote & precipitous place where the castaways ended up.

7 Bregman states merely that the old inhabitants of 'Ata 'left'. In fact, half of them were stolen by Australasian slavers bound for Peru in 1863. The remainder of the population was evacuated shortly afterward by Tonga's King Tupou I.

8 The survival of the '60s castaways was greatly helped by the residue of the civilisation the 'Atans established on their island, before the disaster of 1863. The castaways found not only fruit & vegetables from old gardens, but chickens.

9 But the central point of Bregman's article is that the castaways on 'Ata show us a different model of human behaviour than dystopian adventure stories like Lord of the Flies. & there's another Tongan castaway story that could be used to bolster Bregman's case.

10 Just a few years before the castaways crashed on 'Ata, a group of adults were wrecked on Minerva Reef, another obscure fragment of land between Tonga & NZ. They not only survived for months on the reef's moonscape, but built a new vaka & sailed home.

11 Bregman's argument about the human potential for cooperation is eloquent & important. But I think there may be a danger of too quickly abstracting the stories of the castaways on 'Ata & Minerva from their cultural context.

12 On both 'Ata & Minerva, a very Tongan religiosity & respect for hierarchy helped cohere groups of castaways. Prayer sessions & deference to a leader were crucial. Bregman is mistaken if he feels that the castaways established a democracy.