![Rambutyo (Landsat)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Rambutyo_%28Landsat%29.JPG)
Rambutyo Island (or Rambutso Island) is one of the
Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island.
These rainforest-co ...
in the
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
, located at . Politically, Rambutyo Island is part of
Manus Province
Manus Province is the smallest province in Papua New Guinea in terms of both land area and population, with a land area of , but with more than of water, and the total population is 60,485 (2011 census). The provincial town of Manus is Lorengau.
...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
. The population (unknown) is concentrated on the west coast. Villages include Mouklen (pop.500+, close to a defunct plantation) and Lengkau.
Geography
Rambutyo Island is 88 km
2 and is located 50 km SE of
Manus Island
Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...
, part of the Hornos Island Group. It is roughly triangular in shape with a base 16 km in diameter East-West. The centre of the island has a volcanic peak about 230 m high. Offshore lie important reef complexes.
The island was surveyed in 1958 by the Royal Australian Survey Corps.
The vegetation is moist tropical and subtropical forest, with around 3,000mm of rainfall per year. Logging and coconut groves displaced forest at different times. There are endemic species of rats, bats, birds and a cuscus (Spilocuscus kraemeri,
Admiralty Island cuscus
The Admiralty Island cuscus or Manus Island spotted cuscus (''Spilocuscus kraemeri'') is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. It is endemic to the Admiralty Islands of Papua New Guinea. It is the smallest member of the genus ''Spil ...
) across the Admiralty Islands
History
The island has been populated for thousands of years by farmers and fisherfolk, with strong interchange with and movement between other islands in the Admiralty chain. The population has
Melanesian
Melanesian is the adjectival form of Melanesia. It may refer to:
* Melanesians
* Melanesian mythology
* Melanesian languages In linguistics, Melanesian is an obsolete term referring to the Austronesian languages of Melanesia: that is, the Oceani ...
and
Micronesian ancestry and patrilineal descent rules operate. Shell money, sourced on islands to the north, was used as a means of exchange.
Sago is the most important local food along with fishing, but rice was traded from the period of colonial rule. Free diving for ''beche-de-mer'' or
sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (). They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. The number of holothuria ...
generates income.
European discovery of the island took place as part of the 1616 expedition by the Dutch navigators
Willem Schouten
Willem Cornelisz Schouten ( – 1625) was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean.
Biography
Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c. 1567 in Hoorn, Holland, Seven ...
and
Jacob Le Maire
Jacob Le Maire (c. 1585 – 22 December 1616) was a Dutch mariner who circumnavigated the earth in 1615 and 1616. The strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados was named the Le Maire Strait in his honour, though not without controvers ...
, who "traversed Manus, Los Negros,Los Reyes, Pak, Naura, Rambutvo, Baluan, Sauwai, Lou, Tong other small islands".
In 1885 the Admiralty Islands were declared a German Protectorate, administered by the New Guinea Company. German presence ended in 1914. They were governed by Australia until independence in 1975. The Australian presence was small, but introduced health programs, censuses and patrols, dispute adjudication and schooling, leading to greater use of Pidgin and English.
During
World War II
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 ...
, the island was occupied by a small contingent of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese soldiers. On 3 April 1944,
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
forces led by the U.S.
12th Cavalry
The 5th Horse is an armoured regiment of the Pakistan Army. It was previously known as the 5th King Edward's Own Probyn's Horse, which was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1921 by the amalgamation of the 11th ...
Regiment landed on Rambutyo. By 23 April, the forces were withdrawn for mop-up by the native police force.
The anthropologist
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
, who lived on Manus Island in 1928-29 and 1953, reported a "cargo-cult" movement began on Rambutyo just after WWII, in which people destroyed all their possessions in expectation of a millennial coming. The movement spread to other islands but the "prophet" Wapi was killed when the spirits of the dead never materialized with the "white man's cargo".
The island had copra plantations under private European and Japanese ownership during the period of German and Australian rule. The Japanese trader and entrepreneur Isokichi Komine owned a plantation under German rule, assisted Australian conquest of the islands, but was eventually disenfranchised by Australian anti-Japanese sentiment. Lengendrowa plantation was bought in 1964 to form a cooperative, with 269 people moving from Mouk Island off Baluan.
[Hide, R.L., Allen, B.J., Bourke, R.M., Fritsch, D., Grau, R., Helepet, J.L., Hobsbawn, P., Lyon, S., Poienou, M., Pondrilei, S., Pouru, K., Sem, G. and Tewi, B. (2002). Manus Province: Text Summaries, Maps, Code Lists and Village Identification. Agricultural Systems of Papua New Guinea Working Paper No. 18. Land Management Group, Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra. Revised edition.] Initial cooperative success was followed by financial collapse, and the plantation was later divided into blocks.
References
{{authority control
Admiralty Islands
Manus Province
Islands of Papua New Guinea