Some scholars suggest that the Tu'i Pulotu may have originated from Moturiki, based on archaeological findings from the Fiji Islands during the Lapita period. The only island that can match the meaning of the word Pulotu, where most archaeological discoveries for the so-called Lapita civilizations, with the reconstructed woman's face, plus the 6500-year-old petroglyph stone encrypted with concentric circles were found, was in Moturiki, Lomaiviti. There are also numerous small islands in the Pacific named Motu. A clear breakdown of the name Moturiki is in the Tuamotu group of Islands. According to the Polynesian dictionary, a part of the Tuamotus, the underworld, is Turikiriki. Again, in Malolo, Mamanuca Islands, Fiji, they broke down the word Moturiki by these names. Ra koi Motu, ra koi Riki, Monuriki, Modriki, Tokoriki, and names with links to Moturiki like Navadra and Vanuayalewa (female land-facts about Burotu in Lau). However, Vanuayalewa is known for the Seafield outside Verata to the east, Vuniivilevu or Davetalevu.
The island of Pulotu is an island located in Fiji, north-west of Tongatapu. It is referred to in Tongan oral traditions as "the motherland" or "place of origin." It is there that some believed that Tongan culture and its people developed and evolved out of the ancient Austronesian/Lapita culture (c. 1600 BCE - c. 500 BCE) that migrated from the South East Asian islands through Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Micronesia and Fiji in about 8000 BC.[1]