Aua Island

For other uses, see AUA.
Aua Island
Location of Aua at top left

Aua is an island in the Bismarck Archipelago. It is part of the Western Islands within Manus Province of northern Papua New Guinea.

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).[1][2]

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.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Coello, Francisco "Conflicto hispano-alemán" Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid, t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, p.317.
  2. ^ Sharp, Andrew The discovery of the Pacific Islands Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1960, p.31.
  3. ^ 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.

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

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