Temotu (or Te Motu, literally "the island" in Polynesian) is the easternmost

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

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 capit ...

. The province was formerly known as

Santa Cruz Islands The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the nation of Solomon Islands discovered by the Spaniards. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands ...

Province. It consists, essentially, of two chains of islands which run parallel to each other from the northwest to the southeast. Its area is .

Administrative divisions

Temotu Province is sub-divided into the following wards: Temotu Province (pop 21,362) * Reef Islands ** Polynesian Outer Islands (353) ** Fenualoa (1,305) ** Nipua/Nopoli (880) ** Lipe/Temua (796) ** Manuopo (1,030) ** Nenumpo (1,163) *

** Graciosa Bay (1,264) ** North East Santa Cruz (1,843) ** Nanggu/Lord Howe (1,863) ** Nea/Noole (1,770) ** Nevenema (947) ** Luva Station (2,335) ** Neo (1,558) * isolated islands and groups ** Duff Islands (509) **

Utupua Utupua is an island in the Santa Cruz Islands, located 66 km to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group, between Vanikoro and Santa Cruz proper (Nendo Island). This island belongs administratively to the Temotu Province of the Solomon Is ...

(1,168) **

Vanikoro 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 of the Solomon Islands. The name ''Vanikoro'' is always used as thou ...

(1,293) **

Tikopia Tikopia is a high island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It forms a part of the Melanesian nation state of Solomon Islands but is culturally Polynesian. The first Europeans arrived on 22 April 1606 as part of the Spanish expedition of Pedro F ...

(1,285)

Islands

The islands or island groups which make up the province are: *

Anuta Anuta is a small high island in the southeastern part of the Solomon Islands province of Temotu, one of the smallest permanently inhabited Polynesian islands. It is one of the Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia. Geography The island ...

* Duff Islands (including

Taumako Taumako is the largest of the Duff Islands, in the Solomon Islands. This island has steep sides and rises to a height of above sea level. It is composed of basaltic lavas and pyroclastics like the other islands in the Duffs. The inhabitants of t ...

) *

Fatutaka Fatutaka, Fatu Taka or Patu Taka (also known as Fataka and Mitre Island) is a small high island in the Solomon Islands province of Temotu in the south-west Pacific Ocean. The easternmost of the Solomon Islands, Fatutaka is located southeast of ...

* Malo * Reef Islands (including Fenualoa, Lomlom,

Makalom Makalom is a small uninhabited island in the Reef Islands, in the Solomon Islands province of Temotu. The island is 350 m long and 60 m wide, and is located on the south-west side of an oval-shaped atoll 2.5 km long and 1.5 km wide, some ...

, Matema, Nalongo and Nupani, Nifiloli, Nukapu, Patteson Shoal, Pigeon Island and Pileni) *

(including the large island Nendö) *

* Tinakula *

(including

Banie Banie (formerly ) is a village in Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Banie. It lies approximately south-east of Gryfino and south of the reg ...

and Teanu) The provincial capital is Lata, located on Nendö, the largest and most important of the Santa Cruz islands.

Population

Südseeabteilung in Ethnological Museum Berlin 11d

The population of 21,362 (2009) is quite diverse for the small land area encompassed. The Santa Cruz Islanders are predominantly Melanesian, although the inhabitants of Tikopia, Anuta, the Duff Islands and some of the Reef Islands are

Polynesians Polynesians form an ethnolinguistic group of closely related people who are native to Polynesia (islands in the Polynesian Triangle), an expansive region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sou ...

Languages

The province has given its name to the '' Temotu languages'', a putative linguistic subgroup within the broader Oceanic family of languages. The languages spoken in the province include all nine '' Temotu'' languages proper, plus two Polynesian outlier languages: Vaeakau-Taumako and

References

External links