Owariki or Owa Riki (formerly Santa Catalina) is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

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 ...

; it is located 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 ...

Description

This 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 2.8 km long and 2 km wide. It is located off 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) Island, separated from it by a 7.5 km wide strait, and just south of slightly larger

Owaraha Owaraha or Owa Raha (also known as Santa Ana) is an island in Makira-Ulawa Province, Solomon Islands. Description This relatively small coral island is 5.6 km long and 4.5 km wide. It is located at the eastern end of Makira (San Cristob ...

(Santa Ana) Island. The sound between Owaraha and Owariki is only 2.5 km wide. The inhabitants of Owariki 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 ...

. They share the same culture with the people on Owaraha and on the eastern end of Makira.

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 Owariki 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 Catalina''. Owariki was visited, along with neighboring Owaraha, by the

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 a few years later.Hugo Bernatzik, ''

Owa Raha Owaraha or Owa Raha (also known as Santa Ana) is an island in Makira-Ulawa Province, Solomon Islands. Description This relatively small coral island is 5.6 km long and 4.5 km wide. It is located at the eastern end of Makira (San Cristob ...

''. Büchergilde Gutenberg, Vienna / Zürich / Prague, 1936.

References

External links

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