Takuu
| Takuu | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 4 ° 45 ′ S , 156 ° 59 ′ E | |
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| Number of islands | 13 | |
| Main island | Nukutoa | |
| length | 14.9 km | |
| width | 12.5 km | |
| Land area | 90 ha | |
| Residents | 600 | |
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Takuu (also Tauu Islands or Mortlock Islands ) is a small atoll located in the Pacific Ocean in northeast Papua New Guinea . Administratively it belongs to the Atolls Local Level Government of the North Bougainville District in the province of Bougainville .
geography
The approximately round atoll Takuu is located about 250 km northeast of Kieta , the main port of the island of Bougainville . The atoll consists of 13 islands in the east and one island in the northwest ( Nukereia ). Takuu Island in the southeast is the southernmost and, at 57 hectares, largest in the archipelago. The main island and the only inhabited island, however, is the smaller northern neighboring island of Nukutoa with 8 hectares and the village of the same name. The other islands are called (from north to south): Matiriteata, Lotume, Saando, Maturi, Farefatu, Kapeiatu, Nukutuurua, Karuteke, Nukuaafare, Petasi.
The total land area is 90 hectares .
The total land area of the islands is about 200 hectares ( 2 km² ).
Access to the lagoon inside the atoll is through the Mataakau (northwest) and Ava passages (southwest). Its longest diameter is about 15 km.
The islands of the atoll are very flat: at high tide they rise only one meter above sea level. Therefore, their existence is threatened in the near future, on the one hand by a sinking of the tectonic plate on which the atoll is located, and on the other hand by the constant rise of the sea level in the oceans due to global warming . The groundwater is becoming increasingly salinized. Scientists have serious fears that the islands may no longer be habitable in five years.
History, future prospects
Takuu was first sighted for Europe on November 19, 1795 by the English merchant captain James Mortlock , who was on the voyage home from Australia to England with the merchant ship "Young William" .
The first contacts with European travelers came in the second half of the 19th century.
In order to protect themselves from external influences, Christian missions were prohibited on the islands for over 25 years and foreigners were prohibited from entering. Only 4 researchers were allowed to stay on the islands in those years. This ban was only lifted five years ago (when exactly?) When young islanders who had lived and studied on the larger islands of Papua New Guinea returned to their homeland.
In spring 2006 another storm hit the islands hard. It is foreseeable that they will not be sustainable in the long term. The residents lack the means to build urgently needed dikes . While attempts have been made to raise funds for this purpose through collections, the results have not been found to be sufficient. Therefore, there are currently more considerations about moving the residents to another island. This will probably happen in the foreseeable future.
population
The islands are inhabited by about 600 people. The residents are of Polynesian descent. Takuu is therefore one of the Polynesian exclaves outside the Polynesian triangle .
Culture
The people of Takuu attach great importance to the preservation of their original cultural and religious customs and traditions. Houses built according to traditional models stand on busy streets, nestled so close together that their roofs almost touch. The main street also serves as a “marae”, a place for ritual ceremonies: Such places can be found in all traditional Polynesian communities. Usually, separate plots are designated for this, but on small islands like Takuu the space is too scarce and valuable, so you use the main road that is already there.
Many of the original chants, texts and dances that convey the essential content of the orally transmitted content of Polynesian culture have survived in long-term seclusion. The people of Takuu are familiar with over 1000 such texts and chants, some of which date back to before the contact with European travelers, which took place in the second half of the 19th century. Music and dance are still a fundamental part of the islander's life: the residents spend 20 to 30 hours a week performing old dances and reciting old chants. In these, the relationships of widely ramified family clans with one another or with their respective ancestors are presented and celebrated. They serve on the one hand to promote the mutual cohesion that is vital on such small islands and on the other hand to involve the ancestors in this life process. According to the Polynesian religion, the ancestors are an ever-present part of daily life and are of great importance to the community, especially in times of need.
language
The people of Takuu speak a Polynesian language. A recently proposed regrouping of the Polynesian languages places the Takuuan language under the Ellicean Outlier branch of Polynesian, which are spoken in certain Polynesian enclaves. Languages of this branch can also be found in Tuvalu , Nukuoro , Kapingamarangi , Nuguria , Nukumanu , Ontong Java , Sikaiana and Pileni . Earlier classifications placed these languages under the Samoan language group of Polynesian exclaves ("Samoic Outlier"). Today the Samoan languages (Samoan and Tokelauan) are seen as a separate subgroup of the Ellicean languages.
| German | Takuu | Sikaiana | Tokelau |
|---|---|---|---|
| sky | / ɾani / | / lani / | |
| North wind | / tokoɾau / | / tokelau / | / tokelau / |
| woman | / ffine / | / hahine / | / fafine / |
| House | / faɾe / | / hale / | / fale / |
| mother | / tinna /, / tinna: / | / tinna / | / ma: tua / |
See also: Language comparison (examples) under Polynesian languages
economy
The inhabitants live from the fruits of simple agriculture and from fishing. For the islanders, this is a vital cornerstone of food procurement. Due to the high sea level, however, it is becoming more and more difficult to find suitable places to safely store the canoes on the shores of the islands. Due to this constant penetration of the sea, the cultivation of useful plants has also become more and more difficult in recent years, as the groundwater is increasingly contaminated with salt water. The coastline of the islands is increasingly eroding and salt water often seeps into the traditional taro fields of the islanders and threatens the yields. Therefore the harvest is not always sufficient to supply the population and the people on the islands are increasingly dependent on help from the outside world. When the “Atoll Queen”, the only supply ship that regularly calls at the islands, was out of action for a few months in 2001, there was already a first famine.
Individual evidence
- ↑ MF Willis and PB Booth: Takuu and Nukumanu Atolls, Bougainville District, Territory of Papua and New Guinea, in: Archeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Apr., 1968), pp. 55–63 ( JSTOR 40386035 ), with original specifications 140 acres or 20 acres
- ↑ Tim Bayliss-Smith: Constraints on Population Growth: The Case of the Polynesian Outlier Atolls in the Precontact Period , in: Human Ecology, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct. 1974), pp. 259-295, here p. 280
- ^ Richard Parkinson: Thirty Years in the South Seas: Land and People, Customs and Traditions in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands , London 2000 [1907], p. 225
Web links
- Takuu Islands Association (English) Association to save the islands.
- Mortlocks-Iceland website (English)
- CNN.com/World 2001 via Takuu. (English) Contains a non-current population figure.
- From the archive of the news channel "World today" about Takuu. (English) Contains a non-current population figure.