Vanikoro (sometimes wrongly named ''Vanikolo'') is an island in the
Santa Cruz group, located to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It is part of the
Temotu Province
Temotu (or Te Motu, literally "the island" in Polynesian) is the easternmost province of Solomon Islands. The province was formerly known as Santa Cruz Islands Province. It consists, essentially, of two chains of islands which run parallel to ...
of the
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 ca ...
.
The name ''Vanikoro'' is always used as though it referred to a single island, due to both its geophysical and cultural unity. However, technically it is a group of several nearby islands surrounded by a single belt of
coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
...
. Only the two major islands are inhabited: the bigger one
Banie, and the smaller one
Teanu (or Tevai). Other, uninhabited islets in the Vanikoro group include
Manieve,
Nomianu and
Nanunga. The total area of the Vanikoro group is .
Population and languages
The of Vanikoro consist of two different populations, who tend to live separately.
The
Melanesian majority, about 800 people, are the descendants of the original population of Vanikoro. As far as we know, they have been present on the island since
Lapita times – about 3,200 years ago.
A minority of about 500 individuals are of
Polynesian descent: they have migrated from the island of
Tikopia, an island lying eastwards, which they identify as their origin. They established their first settlements on Vanikoro about 400 years ago on the southern coast of Banie. In 1893, many Tikopians returned to Tikopia as a result of the Solomon Islands having been declared a British protectorate.; but several Tikopians returned to Vanikoro in the 1900s. The two major villages are Murivai and Taumako Bay.
The three languages spoken by the Melanesian population of Vanikoro are all
Oceanic
Oceanic may refer to:
*Of or relating to the ocean
*Of or relating to Oceania
**Oceanic climate
**Oceanic languages
**Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)"
Places
* Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...
, of the
Temotu subgroup:
*
Teanu or ''Buma'' (800 speakers)
*
Lovono or ''Vano'' (4 speakers)
*
Tanema (1 speaker)
The Tikopian settlers speak a Polynesian language,
Tikopian or ''fakatikopia''.
History
The first sighting of Vanikoro by Europeans was in September 1595, by the second Spanish expedition of
Álvaro de Mendaña. It was sighted by
Lorenzo Barreto, while in command of one of the smaller vessels on a voyage around the then ''Santa Cruz'', which is today's
Nendo Island
Nendo may refer to:
* Nendo Island, part of the Solomon Islands
* Nendo (design firm), design firm founded by Sato Oki
{{Disambiguation ...
.
The French explorer
Jean-François de La Pérouse was stranded on Vanikoro after both his vessels,
''La Boussole'' and the
''Astrolabe'', struck the then unknown reefs of the island in 1788. It is reported that some of the men were killed by the local inhabitants, while the surviving sailors built a smaller vessel and left the island, but were never seen again. Those that remained on the island died before search parties arrived in 1826.
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;'' Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extrao ...
dedicates a chapter of his novel ''
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...
'' to this event. Author Naomi Williams' novel ''Landfalls'' explores the Lapérouse expedition in depth.
Chapter 1, ''Coral Sea'', of
James Michener's novel, ''
Tales of the South Pacific
''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of sequentially related short stories by James A. Michener about the Pacific campaign in World War II. The stories are based on observations and anecdotes he collected while s ...
'', is set on the island of Vanicoro.
Environment
Vanikoro is largely forested, with an annual rainfall of . Most of its human population is engaged in
subsistence farming
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...
. It has been identified by
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
as an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...
(IBA) because it supports populations of
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
Vanikoro monarchs and
Vanikoro white-eyes, as well as of
red-bellied fruit doves,
pied goshawk
The pied goshawk (''Accipiter albogularis'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is found on Bougainville Island and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest
Tropical a ...
s,
palm lorikeets,
cardinal myzomelas,
Polynesian trillers and
rusty-winged starlings.
The
Vanikoro flying fox is endemic to the island.
Notes
References
Vanikoro Island(archived link)
(introduction to the dictionary of Teanu), by linguist A. François.
{{authority control
Islands of the Solomon Islands
Important Bird Areas of the Solomon Islands