New Ireland (
Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...
: ''Niu Ailan'') or Latangai, is a large
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...
in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
, approximately in area with 120,000 people. It is named after the island of
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
. It is the largest island of
New Ireland Province, lying northeast of the island of
New Britain
New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the D ...
. Both islands are part of the
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
, named after
Otto von Bismarck, and they are separated by
Saint George's Channel.
The administrative centre of the island and of New Ireland province is the town of
Kavieng located at the northern end of the island. While the island was part of
German New Guinea, it was named Neumecklenburg ("New
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg (; nds, label= Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schweri ...
").
Geography
The island is part of the
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
and is often described as having the shape of a
musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually di ...
. New Ireland is surrounded by the
Bismarck Sea in the southwest and by the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...
in the northeast.
For much of its in length, the island's width varies between less than to , yet the central mountainous spine is very steep and rugged. The highest peak is
Mount Taron
Mount Taron (also spelt Tahron) or Mount Agil is the highest point in the Hans Meyer Range on New Ireland in Papua New Guinea. It is the highest point of New Ireland and the entire Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a grou ...
in the
Hans Meyer Range (). Other mountain ranges are Tirpitz,
Schleinitz,
Verron and Rossel. The island lies between two and five degrees south of the
equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can also ...
. The original land cover was primarily dense
rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
.
History
Pre-colonial period
The first inhabitants of the Bismarck Archipelago arrived around 33,000 years ago after sailing from what is now
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
. Later arrivals included the
Lapita
The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Phili ...
people approximately 3,000 years ago. Three distinct cultural practices are characteristic of the native people of New Ireland:
Kabai,
Malagan and
Tubuan.
Colonial period
In 1616 the
Dutch sailors
Jacob Le Maire and
Willem Schouten
Willem Cornelisz Schouten ( – 1625) was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean.
Biography
Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c. 1567 in Hoorn, Holland, S ...
were the first Europeans to set foot on the island.
Louis Antoine de Bougainville anchored here on 6 July 1768, eleven months after
Philip Carteret.
Whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industr ...
ships often called at the island in the 19th century, for water, wood and provisions. The first recorded whaler to visit was the ''Resource'' in 1799. Islanders sometimes served as crewmen on these vessels. The last known whaling visitor was the ''Belvedere'' in 1884.
In the 1870s and 1880s, the
Marquis de Rays, a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
nobleman, attempted to establish a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
colony on the island called New France. He sent four ill-fated expeditions to the island, the
most famous of which caused the death of 123 settlers.
From 1885 to 1914 New Ireland was a part of
German New Guinea and bore the name ''Neumecklenburg''. Germans managed several highly profitable
copra plantations and built a road to transport the goods. This road is currently in service and is named the
Boluminski Highway after the German administrator of German New Guinea,
Franz Boluminski. After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, Neumecklenburg was renamed New Ireland and was controlled by Australia under a League of Nations mandate. In January 1942, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the island was captured by
Japanese forces and was under their control.
Ecology
The island is part of two
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...
s. The
New Britain-New Ireland lowland rain forests extend from sea level to 1000 meters elevation. The
New Britain-New Ireland montane rain forests cover the mountains of New Ireland above 1000 meters elevation.
Widespread
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...
and
degradation of lowland rainforest is an issue on New Ireland and the other eastern islands of Papua New Guinea (
New Britain
New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the D ...
,
Bougainville Island) as well as on Papua New Guinea mainland. Nearly 60% of their forests are accessible to
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply cha ...
, and by 2002, 63% of the accessible forests had been deforested or degraded.
Culture
*
Malagan – funerary arts that originate in
Tabar Group
The Tabar Group is an island group in Papua New Guinea, located north of New Ireland. It is a part of the Bismarck Archipelago. The Tabar group consists of a short chain of three main islands - Tabar Island (a.k.a. Big Tabar) in the south, Tat ...
, and have been imported to the northern region of New Ireland.
*
Tatanua – "The person who organises a tatanua performance must select the music and dancers, assemble a male chorus and acquire the
masks
A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and pract ...
. The masks are usually rented from one of the sculptors who makes them."
*''
Kulap'' – chalk limestone funerary sculptures.
References
External links
Entryat the
Linköping University
*
Persée : Archaeological survey in southern New IrelandWallaby extinctions at the Macropodid frontier*
{{authority control
Bismarck Archipelago
New Ireland Province
Islands of Papua New Guinea