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Place: Reef Islands

Details

The Reef Islands are a series of atolls raised some five metres on the east and tilted west. Fenualoa is to the west, a long island, seven kilometres by one kilometre at its widest point, which faces into the Great Lagoon extending some thirty kilometres to the west. The main island, Lom Lom, measuring seven by four kilometres, is separated from Fenualoa by a deep channel. In the 1950s, around twenty-five hundred people lived on the islands, occupying the whole area with their gardens and fruit trees, with a density or about 178 persons per square mile.

To the east and northeast Temoa, Taumako, Temoa, Ndende, and to the north Pileni, Nukapu was to the northwest and Matema to the southwest. Polynesian language speakers populated these outliers. It was once thought that central Reef Islanders spoke Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages, a sign of migration links from New Guinea, but more recent analysis by Malcolm Ross, Åshild Næss and Brenda Boerger suggests they are Austronesian languages related to those of Vanuatu. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefs_%E2%80%93_Santa_Cruz_languages [accessed 21 Sept. 2011])

Anglican Bishop John Patteson (q.v.) was murdered at Nukapu in 1871, as payback for a man taken by a labour trader. There is another Polynesian island called Nupani that is extremely isolated and small, measuring some 8.05 by 6.42 kilometres. The village there is situated on a sand cay near the northern end. Like the people of Nukapu, Pileni and Matema, the people there speak a Polynesian language but are a mixture of Polynesian and Melanesian. (Tedder 2008, 100, 11)

Related People

Patteson, John Coleridge (1827 - )

Published resources

Books

Tedder, James L.O., Solomon Islands Years: A District Administrator in the Islands, 1952-1974, Tuatu Studies, Stuarts Point, NSW, 2008. Details

Images

Title: A Man of Pileni Island-Vigt. Full Face (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: A Man of Pileni Island-Vigt. Profile (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: A Metema Island Family (mother and child) (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: A Reef Island Sailing Canoe, Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: A Young Man of Nukapu-3/4 figure, Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Beach at landing-place, Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Boys at Metema Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Chief and Dancing Party, Nelua, Santa Cruz Island (Santa Cruz Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Children at Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Dancing Ground in the Village and Gamal, Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Dancing Ground in the Village and Gamal, Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Dancing Ground in the Village, Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Distance View of Pileni Island, showing Islands of Nifiloli and Fenualua (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: General View of Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Ghost House-Exterior View, Metema Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Ghost House-Interior View, Metema Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Matema Island from the Reef, Reef Islands
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Men on Nukapu Island, Reef Islands
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Nupani Island, Reef Islands
Type: Image
Date: 1970
Source: Brian Taylor

Title: On Beach at Pileni Island-Farewelling (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Protective Stone Walls at Metema Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Reef Island Canoes on Beach, Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Reef Islanders in a Canoe, Reef Islands
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: School House and Scholars, Metema Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: School House and Scholars, Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Schoolhouse, with Bishop Wilson and Scholars, Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: The Patteson Memorial Cross, Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: The Patteson Memorial Cross-Near View, Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Village Scene, Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Women and Girls, Metema Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Women at Metema Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Women at Nukapu Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia

Title: Women at Pileni Island (Reef Islands, Swallow Group)
Type: Image
Date: 1906
Source: Anglican Church of Melanesia