Owaraha or Owa Raha (also known as Santa Ana) is an island in

Makira-Ulawa Province Makira-Ulawa Province is one of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands. Geography The main part of the province is Makira Island. It has a population of 40,419 (2009). The capital is Kirakira. Makira-Ulawa Province includes Makira (San Cristobal ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

Description

This relatively small

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

island is 5.6 km long and 4.5 km wide. It is located at the eastern end of

Makira The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands. It is third most populous island after Malaita and Guadalcanal, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020 ...

(San Cristobal), separated from it by a 7.5 km wide strait, and just north of smaller

Owariki Owariki or Owa Riki (formerly Santa Catalina) is an island in Solomon Islands; it is located in Makira-Ulawa Province. Description This small coral island is 2.8 km long and 2 km wide. It is located off the eastern end of Makira (San Cr ...

(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 The Owa language is a language of the Solomon Islands. It is part of the same dialect continuum as Kahua, and shares the various alternate names of that dialect. Description Owa is a member of the Southeast Solomonic languages and is spoken in ...

and share the same culture with the people in Owariki and in the eastern end of Makira Island. The Pagewa and Aiga Tatari clans of Owaraha and other nearby islands claim descent from the refugees from

Teonimanu Teonimanu is a former island in the Solomon Islands; it was located south of Ulawa and north of the Olu Malau (Three Sisters) Islands in what is now Makira-Ulawa Province. Lark Shoal is probably a remnant of the island. The Pagewa and Aiga Tatari cl ...

which was washed away.

History

First recorded sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of

Álvaro de Mendaña Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warrior ...

on 4 July 1568. More precisely the sighting and also landing in Owahara was due to a local voyage done by a small boat, in the accounts the

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

''Santiago'', commanded by

Francisco Muñoz Rico Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

and having

Hernán Gallego Hernán is a Spanish masculine given name, originating from Germanic Hernan in the Visigoth culture in Spain. It is the Latinized version of the compound name ''Fard-nanth'', which seems to mean "gentle traveler" or "spiritual traveler". The House ...

as pilot. They charted it as ''Santa Ana''. Owaraha was visited by

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

anthropologist and photographer

Hugo Bernatzik Hugo Adolf Bernatzik (26 March 1897 – 9 March 1953, born and died in the city of Vienna), was an Austrian anthropologist and photographer. Bernatzik was the founder of the concept of alternative anthropology. Biography Hugo Adolf Bernatzik was ...

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

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

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 (1888 in Hamburg Germany – 1950 in Owaraha) was a German adventurer who lived in the Solomon Islands. Biography Küper lived in Gupuna village, Owaraha, Makira-Ulawa Province, between 1912 and 1950, the year of his death. He w ...

, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

adventurer who lived in Gupuna village. Küper was married to a respectable local woman, Kafagamurirongo, and was the only

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

who ever reached the ''arafa'' (high person) status within a

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

n community. Küper's grandchildren still live in Owaraha.Sandra Revolon, ''Heinrich Küper: le Blanc dont on parle à mi-voix'', Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie (CREDO), Campus Saint Charles, 3 Place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille, France, ''

Journal de la Société des Océanistes A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

''. ISSN 0300-953X

References

Islands of the Solomon Islands {{SolomonIslands-geo-stub