When three small and separate atoll communities of the tropical Pacific are required by international standards to develop a joint system of national government which can take over the central role of the colonial power, the task for translators is huge. It is demanding in terms of both vocabulary and culture. This paper concerns the translation endeavours of the people of Tokelau in the context of their decolonization. The paper uses a number of key Government documents written since 1980 to provide evidence that Tokelauan translators have been slow to adopt a consistent terminology for the new legal and political ideas, and that they have preferred to source the words of translation in the existing language. A consequence of the use of traditional words for the alien ideas of Western European style government has created some resistance to the social acceptance of the ideas because they are not understood or because the cultural resonance of the ideas in the Tokelauan words of translation is often at odds with the political concepts of the English source text.