Rowa Islands (also known as Reef Islands ) are an uninhabited archipelago in Torba Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. The Rowa are a part of larger Banks Islands archipelago. The islands are a natural border between Melanesia and Polynesia; they are one of the most beautiful places in the South Pacific Ocean and an integral part of a vast system of atolls and reefs.
17-403: Rowa Islands consist of 15 picturesque coral cays. It is located between Ureparapara , Vanua Lava , and Mota Lava . The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is some 5 metres. A large horseshoe-shaped coral reef fringes the islands. At a low tide, the water separating the five islands located in the lagoon is so shallow that one can walk the distance among them. The vegetation on the islands
34-569: A close association with them. He also intensively studied " Melanesian languages ", including the Mota language . He popularized the use of the word " mana " in the West, and described mana "as a generalized power that is perceived in objects appearing in any sense out of the ordinary, or that is acquired by persons who possess them." This Anglicanism -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This biographical article about
51-562: Is Lear. The others are Lehali (on the west coast) and Leqyangle. Two languages are spoken on the island: Lehali and Löyöp , with respectively 200 and 240 speakers. In his 1885 survey of the region's language varieties, the missionary and linguist Robert Codrington described the island as being home to two language varieties, which he calls Retan in the West and the Bay in the East. Comparison of his description with modern data shows that Retan
68-512: Is charted as Nuestra Señora de Montserrate both by him and his chaplain Fray Martin de Munilla. In 1789 , the island was rediscovered by William Bligh , during his journey from Tonga to Timor after the mutiny on the Bounty . After this, Ureparapara was known for a while under the name Bligh Island . The population was 437 in 2009. There are three villages on the island. The main village
85-410: Is low and bushy. Of the whole group of islands, trees only grow on the main island of Rowa, making it visually taller than it actually is. These low-lying islands have been uninhabited since 1939, when the local people had to leave the place after a severe tropical cyclone. They relocated permanently to neighboring islands of Ureparapara , Vanua Lava , and Mota Lava . Their traces can still be seen on
102-565: Is still held as a classic of ethnography . Codrington wrote, "One of the first duties of a missionary is to try to understand the people among whom he works," and he himself reflected a deep commitment to this value. Codrington worked as headmaster of the Melanesian Mission school on Norfolk Island from 1867 to 1887. Over his many years with the Melanesian people, he gained a deep knowledge of their society, languages, and customs through
119-478: Is the third largest island in the Banks group of northern Vanuatu , after Gaua and Vanua Lava . The climate on the island is humid tropical. The average annual rainfall exceeds 4000 mm. Ureparapara is subject to frequent earthquakes and cyclones. Ureparapara island is an old volcanic cone that has been breached by the sea on its east coast. The resulting bay is known as Divers' Bay , and as Löyöp [løjøp] in
136-456: The local language of the same name . Apart from this indentation, the island is circular in shape, with a diameter of fifteen kilometres (9.3 miles). The land area is 39 square kilometres (15 square miles). The first recorded European who arrived to Ureparapara was the Spanish explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 15 June 1606. He first named the island Pilar de Zaragoza ; however, later on, it
153-587: The Löyöp term (of unknown origin), the names descend from a Proto-Torres-Banks *[na] ureᵐbaraᵐbara , which may be understood as "the island of slopes" (Proto-Torres-Banks *ure "island" has cognates such as Tamambo ure [ˈure] ). The name Norbarbar , reported by Codrington for the island, is also of the same origin. Ureparapara is known to host historical sites made of coral stone, named nowon and votwos in Lehali . These ancestral villages, located inland in
170-446: The anthropological literature as suqe or sukwe (after their name in Mota ). These sites are now only visited for ceremonial purposes, as most people nowadays live along the coast. Robert Henry Codrington Robert Henry Codrington (15 September 1830, Wroughton , Wiltshire – 11 September 1922) was an Anglican priest and anthropologist who made the first study of Melanesian society and culture . His work
187-440: The current population of the Bay (Löyöp speakers) includes descendants of refugees who were native to the nearby Reef islands : they were forced to migrate to Ureparapara by an event that is described sometimes as a tsunami in the 1930s, or a cyclone in the 1950s. It is likely that the modern Löyöp language results from the merger of two language varieties: the original dialect of the Bay as described by Codrington (1885), and
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#1732855656724204-469: The end of the 19th century, as the reference language for the area. The island is locally named Noypēypay [nɔjpɪjˈpaj] in Lehali and Aö [aˈø] in Löyöp . Other names for the island include Mwotlap Nōybaybay [nʊjpajˈpaj] , Vurës Ōrbarbar [orᵐbarˈᵐbar] , Vera'a Urbarbara [urᵐbarᵐbara] , and Lakon Ōlpaapaa [ʊlpaːˈpaː] . Except for
221-512: The forest, were abandoned in the 19th century, yet have been preserved under the vegetation; they have been proposed for inclusion amongst the World Heritage sites of UNESCO . One of the most famous sites is a 12-feet high stone platform called Votwos . These used to serve as a ceremonial platform for the high-profile grade-taking ceremonies, known as sok or nsok in Lehali, and referred to in
238-478: The main island of Rowa—stone walls of settlements and gardens. Formerly, the Löyöp language was natively spoken on the islands until the 1930s, when a tsunami forced them to move to the east side of Ureparapara . There are 15 islands in the archipelago. Among them are Anwet, Enwot (has the ruins of the old village), Lomeur, Moïe, Wosu, Wotansa, Rowa (the main island), Ro, Sanna, Peten, and Lavap (the smallest). The name Rowa comes from an attempt of transcribing
255-650: The name Roua [roua] , the term for the island in the Mota language , which was used as the primary language of the Melanesian Mission . In both Löyöp and Mwotlap , it is referred to as Ayō [ajʊ] (with the locative prefix a- ). All of these terms come from a Proto-Torres-Banks form * Roua [ro.u.a] . This Vanuatu location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ureparapara 13°32′S 167°20′E / 13.533°S 167.333°E / -13.533; 167.333 Ureparapara (also known as Parapara for short; once known as Bligh Island )
272-527: The one originally spoken on Rowa – now a deserted archipelago. A 2014 glottometric study of the Banks islands has shown that Löyöp is close to Mwotlap and Volow , whereas Lehali shares elements both with Löyöp and with Lo-Toga in the Torres Islands . The name Ureparapara [ureparapara] reflects the way the island is named in the language of Mota , which was once chosen by missionaries, at
289-547: Was the same language as modern Lehali ; whereas the Bay was apparently the ancestor of Löyöp (also called Divers Bay today). Codrington treats Retan and the Bay as if they were two dialects of a single language, which he calls Norbarbar ; however, the many differences he quotes between them suggest they might as well have been treated as two distinct languages. A more recent survey by linguist A. François confirms that these are two separate languages. Oral history on Ureparapara, as cited by various sources, reports that
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