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 Temotu (or Te Motu, literally "the island" in Polynesian) is the easternmost province of Solomon Islands. The province was formerly known as Santa Cruz Islands Province. It consists, essentially, of two chains of islands which run parallel to ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. The name ''Vanikoro'' is always used as though it referred to a single island, due to both its geophysical and cultural unity. However, technically it is a group of several nearby islands surrounded by a single belt of

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

. Only the two major islands are inhabited: the bigger one

Banie Banie () is a village in Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Banie. It lies approximately south-east of Gryfino and south of the regional capit ...

, and the smaller one Teanu (or Tevai). Other, uninhabited islets in the Vanikoro group include Manieve, Nomianu and Nanunga. The total area of the Vanikoro group is .

Population and languages

The of Vanikoro consist of two different populations, who tend to live separately. The Melanesian majority, about 800 people, are the descendants of the original population of Vanikoro. As far as we know, they have been present on the island since

Lapita The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their distinct material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed to have originated fro ...

times – about 3,200 years ago. A minority of about 500 individuals are of Polynesian descent: they have migrated from the island of

Tikopia Tikopia is a volcanic island in Temotu Province, in the independent nation of Solomon Islands, southwestern Pacific Ocean. Although most of Solomon Islands is Melanesian, Tikopia is culturally Polynesian. Its remoteness has enabled much of its c ...

, an island lying eastwards, which they identify as their origin. They established their first settlements on Vanikoro about 400 years ago on the southern coast of Banie. In 1893, many Tikopians returned to Tikopia as a result of the Solomon Islands having been declared a British protectorate.; but several Tikopians returned to Vanikoro in the 1900s. The two major villages are Murivai and Taumako Bay. The three languages spoken by the Melanesian population of Vanikoro are all

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, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

, of the Temotu subgroup: * Teanu or ''Buma'' (800 speakers) *

Lovono Lovono (''Vano'', ''Alavano'', ''Alavana'') is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands. As of 2012, it is only spoken by four speakers;Tanema Tanema (Tetawo, Tetau) is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands. Vitality As of 2012, Tanema is only spoken by one speaker, Lainol Nalo.Tikopian or ''fakatikopia''.

History

The first sighting of Vanikoro by Europeans was in September 1595, by the second Spanish expedition of

Álvaro de Mendaña Álvaro or Álvar (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname of Germanic Visigothic origin. The patronymic surname derived from this name is Álvarez. Given name Artists * Álvaro Carrillo, Afro-Mexican songwrit ...

. It was sighted by

Lorenzo Barreto Lorenzo may refer to: People * Lorenzo (name) Places Peru * San Lorenzo Island (Peru), sometimes referred to as the island of Lorenzo United States * Lorenzo, Illinois * Lorenzo, Texas * San Lorenzo, California, formerly Lorenzo * Lorenzo State ...

, while in command of one of the smaller vessels on a voyage around the then ''Santa Cruz'', which is today's

Nendo Island Nendo may refer to: * Nendo Island, part of the Solomon Islands * Nendo (design firm), design firm founded by Sato Oki {{Disambiguation ...

. The French explorer

Jean-François de La Pérouse Jean-François () is a French given name. Notable people bearing the given name include: * Jean-François Carenco (born 1952), French politician * Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist * Jean-François Clervoy (born 1958), ...

was stranded on Vanikoro after both his vessels, ''Boussole'' and the ''Astrolabe'', struck the then unknown reefs of the island in 1788. It is reported that some of the men were killed by the local inhabitants, while the surviving sailors built a smaller vessel and left the island, but were never seen again. Those that remained on the island died before search parties arrived in 1826.

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

dedicates a chapter of his novel ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' () is a science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may inclu ...

'' to this event. Author Naomi Williams' novel ''Landfalls'' explores the Lapérouse expedition in depth. Chapter 1, ''Coral Sea'', of

James Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales ...

's novel, ''

Tales of the South Pacific ''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of sequentially related short stories by James A. Michener about the Pacific campaign in World War II. The stories are based on observations and anecdotes he collected while s ...

'', is set on the island of Vanicoro.

Environment

Vanikoro is largely forested, with an annual rainfall of . Most of its human population is engaged in

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occ ...

. It has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports populations of

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Vanikoro monarch The Vanikoro monarch (''Mayrornis schistaceus'') is a species of bird in the Monarch flycatcher, monarch family Endemism, endemic to the Santa Cruz Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and it is threatened ...

s and Vanikoro white-eyes, as well as of

red-bellied fruit dove The red-bellied fruit dove (''Ptilinopus greyi'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in lowland forest in New Caledonia, Santa Cruz Islands ( Solomons), and Vanuatu, and it is common in most of its range. The red-bellied ...

pied goshawk The pied goshawk (''Tachyspiza albogularis'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is found on Bougainville Island and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropic ...

palm lorikeet The palm lorikeet (''Vini palmarum'') is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It is found in the Santa Cruz Islands and Vanuatu. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist mont ...

cardinal myzomela The cardinal myzomela is a species of passerine bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It is named for the scarlet color of the male. It is found in New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropica ...

Polynesian triller The Polynesian triller (''Lalage maculosa'') is a passerine bird belonging to the triller genus ''Lalage'' in the cuckoo-shrike family Campephagidae. It has numerous subspecies distributed across the islands of the south-west Pacific. It is 15 ...

s and

rusty-winged starling The rusty-winged starling (''Aplonis zelandica'') is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in the Santa Cruz Islands and Vanuatu. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tro ...

s. The

Vanikoro flying fox The Vanikoro flying fox (''Pteropus tuberculatus''), also known locally as the basapine, is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae. It has only been found in the Vanikoro island group located in the southern Solomon Islands. The species a ...

is endemic to the island.

Saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats, brackish wetlands and freshwater rivers from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaland to northern Australia and Micronesia. It ha ...

s are present in the island's mangroves, as they are on all of the major islands of

. The island represents the easternmost range of the species within the Solomon Islands (and the second easternmost population overall, behind only

Vanua Lava Vanua Lava is the second largest of the Banks Islands in Torba Province, Vanuatu, after slightly larger Gaua. It is located about 120 km north-northeast of Espiritu Santo and north of Gaua. Name The name ''Vanua Lava'' comes from the Mot ...

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 ...

, which may no longer have a breeding population).

Notes

References

Vanikoro Island
(archived link)

(introduction to the dictionary of Teanu), by linguist A. François. {{authority control Islands of the Solomon Islands Important Bird Areas of the Solomon Islands