Maré Island or Nengone () is the second-largest of the

Loyalty Islands Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre. ...

, in the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, an overseas territory of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The island is part of the commune (municipality) of Maré, in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia.

Geography

The island is long and wide. It lies northeast of Grande Terre, New Caledonia's mainland. Like its neighbor to the north

Lifou Lifou () is a communes of France, commune of France in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia, Pacific Ocean. Geography Lifou is made up of Lifou Island, the largest and most heavily populated of the Loyalty Islands, its smaller neighbou ...

, Maré is a

raised coral atoll A raised coral atoll or uplifted coral atoll is an atoll that has been lifted high enough above sea level by tectonic forces, protecting it from scouring by storms and enabling soils and diverse – often endemic – species of flora and fauna to ...

, a former

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

that has been lifted about 120 meters. The interior of the island is the former lagoon, surrounded by a rim of higher land that was the ring of reef islets. Its fossil coral rock is honeycombed with caves, pools, and pits of all sizes, whose sharp edges make for difficult walking. Because of the lifting, the current shoreline is relatively recent and supports only short sections of nearshore fringing reef, unlike the extensive barrier reef found on the main island of New Caledonia, Grande Terre. The narrow beaches of Maré are often backed by cliffs. Villages include, from north-southwards, Roh, Thogone, Kaewatine, Tenane, Hnawayaca, Wakuaori, Menaku, Padawa, Kaewaura, Pakada, Atha, Tadurehmu, Nece, La Roche, Tuo, Miramas, Wakone, Hanadid, Rawa, Tawainedr, Mebuet, Tadine, Cuaden, Cengeite, Penelo, Patho, Wabao, Medu, Kurin, and

Eni Eni is an Italian oil and gas corporation. Eni or ENI may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia, the Argentine intelligence academy * Groupe des écoles nationales d’ingénieurs (Groupe ENI), a French engi ...

Climate

Maré Island has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate subtype that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ' ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Am''). The average annual temperature in Maré Island is . The average annual rainfall is with March as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in February, at around , and lowest in August, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Maré Island was on 13 February 2016; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 27 August 1979.

Commune

The commune of Maré is made up of Maré Island and the much smaller Dudune Island, which lie among the

, to the northeast of New Caledonia's mainland. The settlement of Tadin, on Maré Island, is the administrative centre of the commune of Maré.

People

The population of Maré is about 6,900, of mainly

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

n heritage (less than 2% of the population is of European ancestry). The indigenous language is Nengone, one of the

Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...

, widely spoken in island regions from

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, coastal

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and on most

Pacific islands The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of several ...

. There are two small towns of Tadine and La Roche, but most Maréans live in tribes associated with one of 29 chieftaincies (chefferie), that are closed to outsiders. Maréans are often fervent Christians, following extensive missionary activity by the competing Protestant (

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

) and Catholic ( Marist)churches during the late 19th century. Sectarian hostility has led to episodic intertribal violence over the years. Maré has produced several important leaders of the militant Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste ( Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, or FLNKS), which seeks independence from France. The Front was founded by a former grand chief of Maré, Nidoish Naisseline around 1970. Another Maréan, Yeiwene Yeiwene, was deputy to the Front's leader

Jean-Marie Tjibaou Jean-Marie Tjibaou (; January 30, 1936 – May 4, 1989) was a French politician in New Caledonia and leader of the Kanak independence movement. The son of a tribal chief, Tjibaou was ordained a Catholic priest but abandoned his religious vocati ...

during the violence of the early 1980s and the signing of the Matignon Accords on 26 June 1988 that brought peace. Seen as traitors by militant elements of the FLNKS, Tjibaou and Yeiwene were assassinated on the island of Ouvea on 4 May 1989. The gravesite of Yeiwene by the sea near Tadine on the west coast of Maré is maintained with often-renewed flower garlands.

European sighting

The first recorded sighting of Maré Island by a European occurred around August 1793. William Raven, master of ''Britannia'' was sailing to Batavia from Sydney, to procure provisions for the penal colony there.

Citations

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maré Island Communes of New Caledonia Islands of New Caledonia Loyalty Islands