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 outsi ...

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 province was formerly known as Santa Cruz 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 The Reef Islands are a loose collection of 16 islands in the northwestern part of the Solomon Islands province of Temotu. These islands have historically also been known by the names of Swallow Islands and Matema Islands. Geography The islan ...

** Polynesian Outer Islands (353) ** Fenualoa (1,305) ** Nipua/Nopoli (880) ** Lipe/Temua (796) ** Manuopo (1,030) ** Nenumpo (1,163) * Santa Cruz Islands ** 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 The Duff Islands are a small island group lying to the northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomon Islands province of Temotu. They are also sometimes known as the Wilson Islands. Location and geography The islands are located at 9°51 ...

(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 Solom ...

(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 (1,285)

Islands

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

(including Taumako) *

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 *

(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 Nalongo and Nupani is a small atoll in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a coral reef totally encircling a 6 km wide lagoon. Nupani Island, also called Nimba, is inhabited with some 100 people, while Nalongo has no permanent habitation. ...

, Nifiloli,

Nukapu Nukapu is one of the islands of the nation of Solomon Islands. It is in the Reef Islands group in Temotu Province; the easternmost province of the Solomons. The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is 15 metres. The island contains a me ...

Patteson Shoal Patteson Shoal is an outer reef in the Reef Islands, in the Solomon Islands province of Temotu. It is located about 50 km northeast of Nupani. The shoal is named for John Coleridge Patteson John Coleridge Patteson (1 April 1827 – 2 ...

, Pigeon Island and

Pileni file:Map of the Reef Islands.png, 300px, Map of the Reef Islands Pileni is a culturally important island in the Reef Islands, in the northern part of the Solomon Islands province of Temotu Province, Temotu. Despite its location in Melanesia, the ...

) * Santa Cruz Islands (including the large island Nendö) * Tikopia * Tinakula *

(including Banie and Teanu) The provincial capital is

Lata Lata (Hindi: लता) is a Hindu/Sanskrit Indian female given name, which means "creeper" and "vine". Lata may refer to: Notable people named Lata * Lata Bhatt (born 1954), Indian singer. * Lata (born 1975), Musician. *Lata Mangeshkar L ...

, 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 The Temotu languages, named after Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands, are a branch of Oceanic languages proposed in Ross & Næss (2007) to unify the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages with Utupua and Vanikoro, each a group of three related langua ...

'', a putative linguistic subgroup within the broader

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 Oceanic is an unincorporated set ...

family of languages. The languages spoken in the province include all nine '' Temotu'' languages proper, plus two

Polynesian outlier Polynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that geographically lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle; instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific su ...

languages:

Vaeakau-Taumako Vaeakau-Taumako (formerly known as ''Pileni'') is a Polynesian language spoken in some of the Reef Islands as well as in the Taumako Islands (also known as the Duff Islands) in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands. The language is sp ...

and Tikopia.

References

External links