Arorae (spelling variants: Arorai, Arurai; also known as Hope Island or Hurd Island“Captain Patterson, commanding the brig ''Elizabeth'', called it Hope Island: “Hope Island, in 2° 43′ S and 176° 56′ 25″ E, was the first discovery, this being obviously Arorae. As there was apparently another Hope Island in the North Pacific, the name was changed by Purdy in 1816 to Hurd Island, in honour of Captain Hurd, Hydrographer to the Admiralty. The two names caused a certain amount of confusion as to whether there were two islands in this position, but eventually the whalers came to know Arorae as Hope and the name has stuck ever since.”

Henry Evans Maude Henry Evans Maude, (1 October 1906 – 4 November 2006) was a British Colonial Service administrator, historian and anthropologist. Life and career Maude was born in Bankipore, India.MAUDE, Henry Evans (1926) died on 4 November 2006, aged ...

.) is an

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

located near the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

. Arorae is the southernmost island in the

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

group. It has a population of just over a thousand inhabitants on 9.5 square kilometres.

Geography

Arorae is the southernmost atoll in the

, 600 km south from

South Tarawa South Tarawa ( gil, Tarawa Teinainano) is the capital and hub of the Republic of Kiribati and home to more than half of Kiribati's population. The South Tarawa population centre consists of all the small islets from Betio in the west to Bonriki ...

. The atoll's area is . The atoll is a low and flat coralline island with an elongated shape. It is 9 km in length and 1 km wide, at its widest point. There is no

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

, like in bigger atolls of the Gilberts. Since the 2015 census, Arorae is the less populated island of the Republic of Kiribati but

Banaba BanabaThe correct spelling and etymology in Gilbertese should be ''Bwanaba'' but the Constitution of Kiribati writes Banaba. Because of the spelling in English or French, the name was very often written Paanapa or Paanopa, as it was in 1901 Ac ...

and

Canton Island Canton Island (also known as Kanton or Abariringa), previously known as Mary Island, Mary Balcout's Island or Swallow Island, is the largest, northernmost, and , the sole inhabited island of the Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati. It i ...

. The population at the November 2020 census was the lowest ever, 983 inhabitants from 208 households. The population at the previous 2015 census was 1,011, most of whom (98.5%) are

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Kiribati Uniting Church The Kiribati Uniting Church (KUC) (until 2014 the Kiribati Protestant Church and earlier, the Gilbert Islands Protestant Church) is a united Protestant Christian denomination in Kiribati. With approximately 25,000 members,

(KUC) and all of them are I-Kiribati (no declared mixed races or others). During the 2010 census, there were only 2 foreign citizens. In the Republic of Kiribati, 25% of the people identifying as “from Arorae” (4,190) live in Arorae: 1,061 live in Arorae, 2,142 live in

and 987 in outer islands. 216 people living in Arorae are not “from Arorae” (2010). At the first census after

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in 1947, 1,558 people lived in Arorae; in 1963, 1,760; in 1968, 1,830, the highest population ever; in 1973, 1,626; in 1978, 1,527; in 1985, 1,470; in 1990, 1,440; in 1995, 1,248; in 2000, 1,225; in 2005, 1,256; in 2010, 1,279 — 134 h/km2. There were 238 households with 5.3 people average in each household (2010 census). Arorae has a large elderly population compared to the rest of Kiribati (12% over 60). There are only two villages on the island, Tamaroa, the northern village and

Roreti Roreti is a village in Arorae, Kiribati. The name is a local transliteration of Royalist. There are only two villages on the island: the northern village, Tamaroa (population 426, 2010 census) and the southern village, Roreti (population 853, 2 ...

(a local transliteration of "Royalist"), the southern village. The government station, with Island Council, schools and services, is located midway, between the two villages, at Taribo. Each village has its KUC church at the centre, the most notable infrastructural features on the atoll, at Tamaroa and Roreti. These churches were built from pure limestone rock hacked from the island base itself in the early 1870s during the initial establishment of Christianity on the island by the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

, which later became the

Kiribati Protestant Church The Kiribati Protestant Church (KPC) and earlier, the Gilbert Islands Protestant Church, is a Protestant Christian denomination in Kiribati. With approximately 10,000 members, The households are arranged along the road in a orderly way, quite close together at the roadside. * Tamaroa (population 356, 2015 census) *

(population 655, 2015 census) Maneaba in Arorae, Kiribati

History

Arorae was first sighted in 1809 by Captain John Patterson of the British vessel, ''Elizabeth'' and called Hope Island. For the

Kanakas Kanakas were workers (a mix of voluntary and involuntary) from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Queensland (Australia) in the 19t ...

, the years of

blackbirding Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The term has been most commonly applied to the large-scale taking of people in ...

in the mid-19th Century came slowly to an end in 1870 upon the arrival of the

(Protestant) missionaries, from

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

, who were able to give some protection against the black birders, together with the establishment of the

British Western Pacific Territories The British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) was the name of a colonial entity, created in 1877, for the administration, under a single representative of the British Crown, styled High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, of a series of Paci ...

, and especially the Pacific Islanders Protection Act of 1872 (the Kidnapping Act) and the Act of 1875 — which provided for agents on British recruiting vessels, stricter licensing procedures, and patrol of British-controlled islands; these Acts reduced the incidence of blackbirding by British subjects, but because of the continuing heavy demand for labour in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, however, the practice continued. The village Royalist (Roreti – local rendition for Royalist) was named after Captain

Davis Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gre ...

warship, , that carried out the proclamation of the

as a British protectorate in 1892.

Culture

Arorae culture has been influenced by

more than most of the other atolls in the

(

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

). This is because Samoan missionaries from

Upolu Upolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is long and in area, making it the second largest of the Samoan Islands by area. With approximatel ...

settled there and converted the island's residents to the Protestant Church. The Samoan presence in Arorae shaped their style of dancing, making Arorae known for the "taubati", a dance using claps, slaps, and stomps as visual percussion to accompany local songs. Because it is a more remote outer-island within the Gilbert line of the Republic of Kiribati, it is known for maintaining a more traditional culture held together mostly under the authority of "unimwane" (village elders). Arorae fishermen are skilled at catching large tuna and shark using hand lines. Arorae fisherman usually save the dorsal shark fin to export for shark fin soup; however, the island has a strict law against cutting the dorsal fin of any shark without taking the entire shark ashore for food. At the northern tip of Arorae is a set of stones (circa 1000–1500 AD) that mark out the initial directions for voyages to the other islands - Tamana,

Nikunau Nikunau is a low coral atoll in the Gilbert Islands that forms a council district of the Republic of Kiribati. It consists of two parts, with the larger in the northwest, joined by an isthmus about wide. There are several landlocked hypersaline ...

, Beru and

Onotoa Onotoa is an atoll of Kiribati. It is situated in the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific Ocean, from Tamana, the smallest island in the Gilberts. The population of Onotoa in the 2015 census was 1,393. The atoll is similar to many other atolls in ...

. These stones are no longer visible from the sea, but are still called "Te Atibu ni Borau" or "navigational stones". Close to the navigational stones is the "migratory" beach, which disappears and reappears at certain times of the year.

History

Arorae Post Office opened around 1923.

Transportation

By air

Arorae Airport Arorae Airport is the airport serving Arorae, Kiribati. It is located in the north of the island, north of the village of Tamaroa. The airport is served by Air Kiribati from Tabiteuea North Airport, which is connected directly with the interna ...

, featuring

Air Kiribati Air Kiribati (pronounced Air Kiri'bas) is the flag carrier of the Republic of Kiribati and operates scheduled passenger services to 20 atolls spread over an area of 3.5m sq km. It is headquartered at Bonriki International Airport on the island o ...

scheduled service on Thursdays, is located in the north of the island, north of the village of Tamaroa.

Education

Arorae is known as the atoll with more literate people of Kiribati, with 98% able to read and write in

Gilbertese Gilbertese or taetae ni Kiribati, also Kiribati (sometimes ''Kiribatese''), is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in Kiribati. It belongs to the Micronesian branch of the Oceanic languages. The word ''Kiribati'', the current name of the i ...

. There are only two schools in Arorae: namely Arorae Junior Secondary School (JSS) and the Tiona Primary School. There are also two pre-schools. Both schools are enough for the size of Arorae, placed near the Arorae Island Council, with easy access from both villages. In 2011, a total of 198 children were enrolled in the Tiona Primary School and 103 students were been attending the Arorae JSS.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20161015001723/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/32000187
Exhibit: The Alfred Agate Collection: The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
from the Navy Art Gallery {{Authority control Atolls of Kiribati