Ontong Java Atoll
Encyclopedia
Ontong Java Atoll or Luangiua is one of the largest atoll
s on earth. It is sometimes referred to as Lord Howe Atoll, not to be confused with Lord Howe Island
.
. As an outlying part of Malaita Province
, it forms the northernmost tract of land of this state, over 250 km north of Santa Isabel Island
.
The closest land, however, is Nukumanu Atoll
, which lies only 38 km due north of Ontong Java's northern tip and, though historically closely related to Ontong Java, is now under the administration of Papua New Guinea
.
Ontong Java is roughly boot-shaped. The entire size of the atoll is 1400 km², but there are only 12 km² of land, spread out over 122 small islands. The islands are mostly low-lying coral formations, the highest elevation being 13 metres.
Approximately 2000 people live on the atoll. There are two main villages where the population is concentrated with roughly 1200 on the island of Luaniua in the eastern end and 800 on Pelau in the northeast.
The islands were first inhabited by Polynesians
approximately 2000 years ago. The main cultural and commercial exchanges took place with the inhabitants of neighboring Nukumanu Atoll, with whom Ontong Java people share many cultural affinities.
The first verifiable European sighting was by Abel Tasman
in 1643 who named it Ontong Java; however, it wasn't until 1791 that Europeans set foot on the islands (an Englishman named John Hunter who named it Lord Howe Atoll). In 1893 the islands were annexed by Germany and later ceded to Great Britain in 1899.
Today the atoll's inhabitants make a subsistence living by means of coconut and taro (root) cultivation, as well as fishing. Until a ban in 2005, the primary source of income was beche de mer and trochus
shells, which were shipped to Hong Kong
. The inhabitants are also involved in copra production. It also has a prolific number of sea birds, including the black-naped tern
, which uses Ontong Java Atoll as a breeding site.
character despite their location in the Melanesian Archipelago of the Solomon Islands. In former times both men and women wore elaborate tattoos all over their bodies. Two dialects of one language are spoken in this atoll, Luangiua and Pelau. This language belongs to the Polynesian stock
.
Ontong Java was visited by English missionary George Brown
in mid 19th century. Brown described the population as Polynesian and referred to the place as Lua Niua. He recorded the existence of a two-class system in Ontong Java and, based on it, inferred that it was probable that exogamous classes formerly existed in Samoa
as well.
The first detailed research on Ontong Java's inhabitants, however, was conducted by German ethnographers Ernst Sarfert and Hans Damm, during a German scientific expedition of the Southern Seas that took place in 1908-1910. This expedition visited both Ontong Java and neighboring Nukumanu Atoll, where they also carried out their research. Their work, "Luangiua und Nukumanu" was published in 1931. Sarfert and Damm claimed that both names of the atoll, Lord Howe and Ontong Java, were incorrect and called this atoll Luangiua in their works.
Jack London
first called this atoll "Oolong". Later he would write in one of his novels: Nobody ever comes to Lord Howe, or Ontong-Java as it is sometimes called. Thomas Cook & Son do not sell tickets to it, and tourists do not dream of its existence. Not even a white missionary has landed on its shore. Its five thousand natives are as peaceable as they are primitive. Yet they were not always peaceable. The Sailing Directions
speak of them as hostile and treacherous. But the men who compile the Sailing Directions have never heard of the change that was worked in the hearts of the inhabitants, who, not many years ago, cut off a big bark
and killed all hands with the exception of the second mate. The survivor carried the news to his brothers. The captains of three trading schooner
s returned with him to Lord Howe. They sailed their vessels right into the lagoon and proceeded to preach the white man
's gospel that only white men shall kill white men and that the lesser breeds must keep hands off. The schooners sailed up and down the lagoon, harrying and destroying. There was no escape from the narrow sand-circle, no bush to which to flee. The men were shot down at sight, and there was no avoiding being sighted. The villages were burned, the canoes smashed, the chickens and pigs killed, and the precious cocoanut trees chopped down. For a month this continued, when the schooner sailed away; but the fear of the white man had been seared into the souls of the islanders and never again were they rash enough to harm one.
Ontong Java was later visited by Sydney University anthropologist Herbert Ian Hogbin
in 1927. Hogbin's study of Ontong Java was published in 1934.
Atoll
An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...
s on earth. It is sometimes referred to as Lord Howe Atoll, not to be confused with Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
.
Description
Administratively Ontong Java belongs to the Solomon IslandsSolomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
. As an outlying part of Malaita Province
Malaita Province
Malaita Province is one of the largest provinces of the Solomon Islands. It is named for its largest island, Malaita . Other islands include South Malaita Island , Sikaiana Island, and Ontong Java Atoll. The provincial capital and largest urban center is Auki, located on Big Malaita...
, it forms the northernmost tract of land of this state, over 250 km north of Santa Isabel Island
Santa Isabel Island
Santa Isabel Island is the longest in the Solomon Islands, South Pacific, and the largest in the group of islands in Isabel Province.-Location and geographic data:...
.
The closest land, however, is Nukumanu Atoll
Nukumanu Islands
Nukumanu, formerly Tasman Islands, is a medium sized atoll located in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean, 4 degrees south of the equator.-Description:...
, which lies only 38 km due north of Ontong Java's northern tip and, though historically closely related to Ontong Java, is now under the administration of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
.
Ontong Java is roughly boot-shaped. The entire size of the atoll is 1400 km², but there are only 12 km² of land, spread out over 122 small islands. The islands are mostly low-lying coral formations, the highest elevation being 13 metres.
Approximately 2000 people live on the atoll. There are two main villages where the population is concentrated with roughly 1200 on the island of Luaniua in the eastern end and 800 on Pelau in the northeast.
History
Polynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
approximately 2000 years ago. The main cultural and commercial exchanges took place with the inhabitants of neighboring Nukumanu Atoll, with whom Ontong Java people share many cultural affinities.
The first verifiable European sighting was by Abel Tasman
Abel Tasman
Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC . His was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands...
in 1643 who named it Ontong Java; however, it wasn't until 1791 that Europeans set foot on the islands (an Englishman named John Hunter who named it Lord Howe Atoll). In 1893 the islands were annexed by Germany and later ceded to Great Britain in 1899.
Today the atoll's inhabitants make a subsistence living by means of coconut and taro (root) cultivation, as well as fishing. Until a ban in 2005, the primary source of income was beche de mer and trochus
Trochus
Trochus is a genus of medium-sized to very large sea snails. They are marine gastropod molluscs in the family Trochidae, the top snails....
shells, which were shipped to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. The inhabitants are also involved in copra production. It also has a prolific number of sea birds, including the black-naped tern
Black-naped Tern
The Black-naped Tern is an oceanic tern mostly found in tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is rarely found inland....
, which uses Ontong Java Atoll as a breeding site.
Anthropology and linguistics
Ontong Java's inhabitants retain a PolynesianPolynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
character despite their location in the Melanesian Archipelago of the Solomon Islands. In former times both men and women wore elaborate tattoos all over their bodies. Two dialects of one language are spoken in this atoll, Luangiua and Pelau. This language belongs to the Polynesian stock
Polynesian languages
The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Polynesians share many cultural traits...
.
Ontong Java was visited by English missionary George Brown
George Brown (missionary)
George Brown was an English Methodist missionary and ethnographer.- Early life and education :George Brown was born at Barnard Castle, Durham, England, the son of George Brown, barrister, and his wife Elizabeth, née Dixon, sister of the wife of Rev. Thomas Buddle, missionary in New Zealand...
in mid 19th century. Brown described the population as Polynesian and referred to the place as Lua Niua. He recorded the existence of a two-class system in Ontong Java and, based on it, inferred that it was probable that exogamous classes formerly existed in Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
as well.
The first detailed research on Ontong Java's inhabitants, however, was conducted by German ethnographers Ernst Sarfert and Hans Damm, during a German scientific expedition of the Southern Seas that took place in 1908-1910. This expedition visited both Ontong Java and neighboring Nukumanu Atoll, where they also carried out their research. Their work, "Luangiua und Nukumanu" was published in 1931. Sarfert and Damm claimed that both names of the atoll, Lord Howe and Ontong Java, were incorrect and called this atoll Luangiua in their works.
Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
first called this atoll "Oolong". Later he would write in one of his novels: Nobody ever comes to Lord Howe, or Ontong-Java as it is sometimes called. Thomas Cook & Son do not sell tickets to it, and tourists do not dream of its existence. Not even a white missionary has landed on its shore. Its five thousand natives are as peaceable as they are primitive. Yet they were not always peaceable. The Sailing Directions
Sailing Directions
Sailing Directions is a 42-volume American navigation publication published by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency . Sailing Directions consists of 37 Enroute volumes, 4 Planning Guide volumes, and 1 volume combining both types...
speak of them as hostile and treacherous. But the men who compile the Sailing Directions have never heard of the change that was worked in the hearts of the inhabitants, who, not many years ago, cut off a big bark
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
and killed all hands with the exception of the second mate. The survivor carried the news to his brothers. The captains of three trading schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
s returned with him to Lord Howe. They sailed their vessels right into the lagoon and proceeded to preach the white man
White man
White man or white men also may refer to:Sociology and anthropology:* A white male, also see: Caucasian race* Western world* White people - a racial, political, sociological or cultural classification of people...
's gospel that only white men shall kill white men and that the lesser breeds must keep hands off. The schooners sailed up and down the lagoon, harrying and destroying. There was no escape from the narrow sand-circle, no bush to which to flee. The men were shot down at sight, and there was no avoiding being sighted. The villages were burned, the canoes smashed, the chickens and pigs killed, and the precious cocoanut trees chopped down. For a month this continued, when the schooner sailed away; but the fear of the white man had been seared into the souls of the islanders and never again were they rash enough to harm one.
Ontong Java was later visited by Sydney University anthropologist Herbert Ian Hogbin
Ian Hogbin
Herbert Ian Priestly Hogbin was a British-born Australian anthropologist. He conducted field work in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea....
in 1927. Hogbin's study of Ontong Java was published in 1934.