Aua Island

For other uses, see AUA.

Aua is an island in the Bismarck Archipelago. It is part of the Western Islands within Manus Province of northern Papua New Guinea. It forms part of the Aua-Wuvulu Rural LLG.[1]

History

The first sighting by Europeans of Aua island was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz de Retes on 27 July 1545 when on board of the carrack San Juan tried to return from Tidore to New Spain. He charted this island together with the nearby islands, Wuvulu and Manu, as La Barbada (the bearded island in Spanish).[2][3] The first written reference to Aua occurs as a brief reference to their discovery by de Retes in the chronicle of A. de Herrera, published in Madrid in 1615.[4] On 19 September 1767, Philip Carteret, the British navigator sailing in HMS Swallow, sighted Aua, and named her Durour, after one of his ship's officers.[4] A trading station was established on Aua in 1903, by two young Germans with twelve New Guineans from New Ireland and Buka Island. While one of the Germans was off the island with malaria, the inhabitants killed the other. The group responsible for his death then left the island to escape retribution, but many were killed in a storm.[4]

Geography

Aua is a flat low-lying island, about two miles across from east to west, with a total area of 3,380 acres. Its palm- fringed shore is surrounded by coral reefs, which rise out of deep water.[4] Its circumference is 10.256 km.[5]

Inhabitants

The genetic makeup of the island is especially diverse when contrasted against the surrounding islands in the Bismark Archipelago, the inhabitants descend from various stocks of Papuan, Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian peoples.[4] In 1950 the Sydney Morning Herald described the island as being the "strangest community in the world", noting that the people practiced both polygamy and polyandry, and the women are not allowed to do any work.[6] There is one primary school with 40 students and just one teacher.[7][8]

Transport

Aua has a grass airstrip with the IATA code of AUI.[9]

See also

  • Bismarck Archipelago topics
  • Islands Region (Papua New Guinea)

References

  1. ^ "Village Coordinates Lookup". OCHA. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  2. ^ Coello, Francisco "Conflicto hispano-alemán" Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid, t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, p.317.
  3. ^ Sharp, Andrew The discovery of the Pacific Islands Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1960, p.31.
  4. ^ a b c d e Pitt-Rivers, George Lane Fox (1925). "Aua Island: Ethnographical and Sociological Features of a South Sea Pagan Society". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 55: 425–438. doi:10.2307/2843649. ISSN 0307-3114. JSTOR 2843649.
  5. ^ "Aua". World Islands Net. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  6. ^ "The Strange Life of Aua Island". Trove. The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 July 1950. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  7. ^ "Aua Island". Ministry of Education, PNG. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Aua Primary School". YouTube. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Aua Island Airport (AUI)". World Airport Codes. Retrieved 9 July 2025.

1°27′45″S 143°03′35″E / 1.46250°S 143.05972°E / -1.46250; 143.05972

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