Ontong Java Atoll
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- Ontong Java redirects here. For the undersea plateau, see Ontong Java Plateau.
Ontong Java Atoll is one of the largest atolls on earth. It is sometimes referred to as Lord Howe Atoll which is not to be confused with Lord Howe Island east of Australia. Other alternative names of this atoll are Luangiua and Leuangiua.
Administratively Ontong Java belongs to the Solomon Islands. 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 which is 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. Only two of the islands are permanently inhabited.
Approximately 2000 people live on the atoll; with 1200 on the island of Luaniua in the eastern end and 800 on Pelau in the northeast. Luaniua has 13 chiefs, while Pelau has only one.
[edit] History
The islands were first inhabited by Polynesians approximately 2000 years ago. 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 copra and taro (root) production, 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. It also has a prolific number of sea birds, including the black-naped tern, which uses Ontong Java Atoll as a breeding site.
[edit] Anthropology and linguistics
Ontong Java's inhabitants retain a Polynesian 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.
The dialects spoken in this atoll are Luangiua and Pelau and they belong to the Polynesian stock.
The first serious research on Ontong Java's inhabitants 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.
Ontong Java was later visited by Sydney University anthropologist Herbert Ian Hogbin in 1927. Hogbin's study of Ontong Java was published in 1934.
[edit] References
- Hogbin, H. Ian. "The Social Organization of Ontong Java." London 1931
- Hogbin, H. Ian. "Transition Rites at Ontong Java." Oceania 1: 399-425. 1930
- Sarfert, Ernst, and Hans Damm. "Luangiua und Nukumanu." Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition, 1908-1910. Hamburg 1931
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