Owaraha or Owa Raha is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the Solomon Islands

Solomon 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...

; it is located in Makira-Ulawa Province

Makira-Ulawa Province

Makira-Ulawa Province is one of the provinces of the Solomon Islands. The main part of the province is Makira Island. It has a population of 31,006...

.

Description

This relatively small coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

 island is 5,6 km long and 4, 5 km wide. It is located at the eastern end of Makira

Makira

The island of Makira is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands. The island is located east of Guadalcanal and south of Malaita. The largest and capital city is Kirakira....

 (San Cristobal), separated from it by a 7,5 km wide strait, and just north of smaller Owariki

Owariki

Owariki or Owa Riki is an island in the Solomon Islands; it is located in Makira-Ulawa Province.-Description:...

 (Santa Catalina). The sound between Owaraha and Owariki is only 2.5 km wide. The island has two main villages Gupuna (or Ghupuna) and Nafinotoga. The inhabitants of Owaraha speak the Owa language

Owa language

The Owa language is a language of the Solomon Islands. It is part of the same dialect chain as Kahua, and shares the various alternate names of that dialect.-Description:...

 and share the same culture with the people in Owariki and in the eastern end of Makira Island.

Owaraha was visited by Austrian

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

 anthropologist and photographer Hugo Bernatzik

Hugo Bernatzik

Hugo Adolf Bernatzik , was an Austrian anthropologist and photographer.Bernatzik was the founder of the concept of alternative anthropology.-Biography:...

 in 1932. Bernatzik carefully documented daily life among the island people and published an ethnography

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

 a few years later. He also took some of the best and earliest photographs of the islanders, reflecting a culture that he deemed was dying in contact with the modern world.

During his sojourn in Owaraha Bernatzik met Heinrich Küper

Heinrich Küper

Heinrich Küper was a German adventurer who lived in the Solomon Islands.-Biography:Küper lived in Gupuna village, Owaraha, Makira-Ulawa Province, between 1910 and 1950, the year of his death. He was a former officer of the Kaiserliche Marine who had deserted...

, a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 adventurer who lived in Gupuna village. Küper was married to a respectable local woman, Kafagamurirongo, and was the only white who ever reached the arafa (high person) status within a Melanesia

Melanesia

Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...

n community. Küper's grandchildren still live in Owaraha.