Rah or Ra is a small coral islet of , located in the

Banks A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. As banks ...

group of northern

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. The same name also refers to the single village which is situated within this islet. There is a massive rock tower on the island, which is a popular hiking spot for locals as well as tourists. It is named ''Tavalya'' in

Mwotlap Mwotlap (pronounced ; formerly known as ''Motlav'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of ...

(meaning "the other side of Ra"), and sometimes labelled 'the Rock of Rah' in English. The islet of Rah is situated off the larger island of

Mota Lava Mota Lava or Motalava is an island of the Banks group, in the north of Vanuatu. It forms a single coral system with the small island of Ra. The 2009 census figures give a population of 1,640 inhabitants (Mota Lava + Ra), which amounts to a p ...

. Access to Rah is done in two ways: at low tide, by wading across the narrow strait from the mainland;and at high tide, by outrigger canoe.

Name

The islet is known in English, and

Bislama Bislama ( ; ; also known by its earlier French name, ) is an English-based creole language. It is the national language of Vanuatu, and one of the three official languages of the country, the other ones being English and French. Bislama is the ...

, as ''Rah'' (where the letter ''h'' does not represent anything in the actual name). ''Rah'' reflects a shortened version of the form ''Rao'' , which is the way the islet is called in the neighbouring language Mota. The island has also been calle
''Ara''
presumably an older variant of the current Mwotlap name. In the islanders' own language

, the islet is called ''Aya'' (with a locative prefix ''a-''). The name can be reconstructed, based on the Mota and Mwotlap forms, to Proto-Torres-Banks *''Rao''.

Population

The 2009 census figures give a population of 189 inhabitants. A 2015 estimate puts the population of the island at 224 people, with 42 households.Vanuatu National Statistics Office. (17–18 March 2015)
"2015 Vanuatu National Population and Households Projections by Province and islands"
Retrieved 12 October 2020.

References

Islands of Vanuatu Torba Province Banks Islands {{Vanuatu-geo-stub