Rowa Islands (also known as Reef Islands) are an uninhabited archipelago in

Torba Province Torba (or ''TorBa'') is the northernmost and least populous province of Vanuatu. It consists of the Banks Islands and the Torres Islands. The province's name is derived from the initial letters of "''TORres''" and "''BAnks''". Population The ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

in the Pacific Ocean. The Rowa are a part of larger

Banks Islands The Banks Islands (in Bislama ''Bankis'') are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu. Together with the Torres Islands to their northwest, they make up the northernmost province of Torba. The island group lies about north of Maewo, and include ...

archipelago. The islands are a natural border between Melanesia and Polynesia; they are one of the most beautiful places in the South Pacific Ocean and an integral part of a vast system of atolls and reefs.

Geography

Rowa Islands consist of 15 picturesque coral cays between the islands of

Motalava Mota Lava or Motalava is an island of the Banks group, in the north of Vanuatu. It forms a single coral system with the small island of Ra. The 2009 census figures give a population of 1640 inhabitants (Mota Lava + Ra), which amounts to a popu ...

and

Ureparapara Ureparapara (also known as ''Parapara'' for short; once known as ''Bligh Island'') is the third largest island in the Banks group of northern Vanuatu, after Gaua and Vanua Lava. The climate on the island is humid tropical. The average annual r ...

in northern Vanuatu. The neighboring islands are

Mota Lava Mota Lava or Motalava is an island of the Banks Islands, Banks group, in the north of Vanuatu. It forms a single coral system with the Ra Island, small island of Ra. The 2009 Vanuatu Census, 2009 census figures give a population of 1640 inhabitan ...

and

Vanua Lava Vanua Lava is the second largest of the Banks Islands in Torba Province, Vanuatu, after slightly larger Gaua. It is located about 120 km north-northeast of Espiritu Santo and north of Gaua. Name The name ''Vanua Lava'' comes from the Mota ...

. The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is some 5 metres. A large horseshoe-shaped coral reef fringes the islands. At a low tide, the water between the five islands located in the lagoon is so shallow that one can walk the distance among them. The vegetation on the islands is low and bushy. Of the whole group of islands, trees only grow on the main island of Rowa, making it visually taller than it actually is.

Population

These low-lying islands have been uninhabited since 1939, when the local people had to leave the place after a severe tropical cyclone. They relocated permanently to neighboring islands of

, and

. Their traces can still be seen on the main island of Rowa—stone walls of settlements and gardens. Formerly, the

Löyöp language Löyöp (formerly known as ''Lehalurup'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 240 people, on the east coast of Ureparapara Island in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu.

was natively spoken on the islands until the 1930s, when a tsunami forced them to move to the east side of

. Tryon (1972).

Islands

There are 15 islands in the archipelago. Among them are Anwet, Enwot (has the ruins of the old village), Lomeur, Moïe, Wosu, Wotansa, Rowa (the main island), Ro, Sanna, Peten, and Lavap (the smallest).

Name

The name ''Rowa'' comes from an attempt of transcribing the name ''Roua'' , the term for the island in the

Mota language Mota is an Oceanic language spoken by about 750 people on Mota island, in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu. The language (named after the island) is one of the most conservative Torres–Banks languages, and the only one to keep its inherited five-v ...

, which was used as the primary language of the

Melanesian Mission The Melanesian Mission is an Anglican missionary agency supporting the work of local Anglican churches in Melanesia. It was founded in 1849 by George Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand. History Bishop Selwyn's see was focused on New Zealand. ...

. In both Löyöp and

Mwotlap Mwotlap (pronounced ; formerly known as ''Motlav'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of Ra ...

, it is referred to as ''Ayō'' (with the locative prefix ''a-'').Entry “Ayō”
in A. François’
Online Mwotlap dictionary
'. All of these terms come from a Proto-Torres-Banks form *''Roua'' .

References

Torba Province Islands of Vanuatu Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean {{Vanuatu-geo-stub