Takuu Atoll

Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / height Missing

Takuu (also Tauu Islands or Mortlock Islands) is a small, in the Pacific Ocean situated in the northeast of Papua New Guinea Atoll. Administratively, it is part of the atoll Local Level Government of North Bougainville District in the province of Bougainville.

Geography

Takuu is located about 250 km north-east of Kieta, the main port of the island of Bougainville. The atoll consists of 13 islands in the East and an island in the North West ( Nukereia ). Takuu Iceland is the southernmost and largest with 57 acres of the island group. However, the main island and only inhabited island is the smaller northern neighbor island Nukutoa with 8 acres and with the village of the same name.

The total land area is 90 hectares.

The land area of ​​the islands is taken together about 200 acres (2 km ²).

Access to the lagoon inside the atoll made ​​by the Mataakau and Ava Passage.

The islands of the atoll are very shallow: They rise at high tide only one meter above sea level. Therefore, their existence is already threatened in the near future, on the one hand. Due to a decrease in the tectonic plate on which the atoll is located, and on the other by the steady rise in sea level in the oceans due to global warming Serious fears of scientists believe that could no longer be habitable islands in five years.

History

Takuu was first spotted for Europe on 19 November 1795 by the English sea captain James Mortlock, who was with the merchant ship " William Young " on the way home from Australia to England.

Population

The islands are inhabited by approximately 600 people. The inhabitants are of Polynesian descent. Therefore takuu one of the out-of- Polynesian triangle of Polynesia enclaves.

Culture

The inhabitants Takuus place a high value on preserving their original cultural and religious customs and traditions. According to traditional models built houses are on busy streets, so close together snuggled that their roofs almost touching. The main road also serves as a " marae ", as a place for ritual ceremonies thus: Such places are found in all traditional Polynesian communities. Usually, this separate plots are shown, but on small islands like Takuu the course is scarce and valuable, so one uses the already existing main road.

To protect itself from external influences was on the islands for over 25 years a ban Christian missionary and tourist entry was prohibited. Only 4 researchers in those years was allowed to stay on the islands. This ban was not lifted until five years ago, returned as a young islanders who had lived and studied on the larger islands of Papua New Guinea in their home.

In these many years of isolation, many of the original songs, lyrics and dances have survived, which provide the essential content of the orally transmitted contents of Polynesian culture. The inhabitants Takuus know more than 1,000 such texts and songs, some of which date back to the time before 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 lives of the islanders: 20 to 30 hours a week to spend with the residents of the performance of old dances and reciting the old songs. In these relations often widely ramified family clans among themselves or shown to respective ancestors and celebrated. They serve on the one hand to promote the vital on such small islands mutual cohesion and on the other to integrate the ancestors in this life process. According to the Polynesian religion Tree are an ever-present part of daily life and especially in times of need is of great importance for the community.

Language

The inhabitants speak a Polynesian language Takuus. A recently proposed regrouping of Polynesian languages ​​places the takuuanische language under the Elliceanischen languages ​​( " outlier Ellicean branch of Polynesian " ), which are spoken in certain Polynesian enclaves. Languages ​​of this branch are also found in Tuvalu, Nukuoro, Kapingamarangi, Nukuria, Nukumanu, Luangiua, Sikaiana and Pileni. Earlier classifications arranged these languages ​​on the Samoan Polynesian language group Exclaven ( " Samoic outlier "). Today you can see the Samoan languages ​​( Samoan and Tokelauanisch ) as an independent subgroup of Elliceanischen languages.

See also: Language comparison (examples) under Polynesian languages

Economy

The residents live on the fruits of simple agriculture and fishing. This is a vital cornerstone of procuring food for the islanders. Due to the high sea level, it is increasingly difficult to find suitable sites for the safe storage of the canoes on the shores of the islands. Because of this constant encroachment of the sea and the cultivation of crops in recent years has become increasingly difficult because the groundwater is increasingly contaminated with salt water. The coastline of the islands eroded increasingly and often salt water penetrates into the traditional taro fields of the islanders, and threatens the income. Not always is more than sufficient harvest 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 which starts the islands regularly, in the year 2001 was for a few months, it therefore has already come to a first famine.

Also in the spring of 2006, a storm hit the islands hard and it is foreseeable that they will not be maintainable over time. For the construction of urgently needed dikes residents lack the means. Although an attempt was made to bring in funds for this purpose through collections, but the results proved to be insufficient. Therefore Discussions are taking place increasingly to relocate the residents to another island. To this end, it will probably come in the foreseeable future.