- Carteret Islands
The Carteret Islands (also known as Carteret Atoll, Tulun or Kilinailau Islands/Atoll) are
Papua New Guinea islands located 86 km (53 mi) north-east of Bougainville in the South Pacific. Theatoll has a scattering of low-lying islands called Han, Jangain, Yesila, Yolasa and Piul, in a horseshoe shape stretching 30 km (19 mi) in north-south direction, with a total land area of 0.6 square kilometers and a maximum elevation of 1.5 m (5 ft) above sea level.The group is made up of islands collectively named after the British navigator
Philip Carteret who discovered them in the sloop "Swallow" in 1767. As of 2005 about one thousand people live on the islands. Han is the most significant island with the others being small islets around thelagoon . The island is near the edge of the large geologic formation called theOntong Java Plateau .History
When visited in 1830 by
Benjamin Morrell in the schooner Antarctic, several islands had a native population which was growing several crops. One small island was uninhabited and covered with heavy timber. With the approval of the area's ruler Morrell's crew began construction on the southwest corner of the island in the northeast part of the atoll, with the intent to harvest snail meat and edible bird nests for the Chinese market.Departing after a fatal attack on his crew, Morrell named the islands the Massacre Islands.cite journal
last =Bayliss-Smith
first =Tim
title =Constraints on population growth: The case of the Polynesian Outlier Atolls in the precontact period
journal =Human Ecology
volume =2
issue =4
pages =259–295
publisher =Springer Netherlands
date=October 1974
url =http://www.springerlink.com/content/l7465j4722r1g242/
doi =10.1007/BF01531318 ] [cite book
last =Morrell
first =Benjamin
title =A Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean
publisher =J & J Harper
date=1832
location =New York
url =http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=g0AGAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover
accessdate = 2008-01-04 ]Food staples have been cultivated
taro andcoconut and fishing supports the people. The area had been inhabited for about 1,000 years before European contact in about 1880, when thecopra trade and other activities altered the economy and customs. Population grew rapidly in the early 1900s, and overcrowding in the 1930s caused a population decline. Food shortages since the 1960s, in recent times caused by international commercial fishers, caused resettlement of some islanders to the Kuveria area of Bougainville from 1984 through the late 1980s. [cite web
title =Bougainville Province Agricultural System: 02, Subsystem: 01 Page 2
work =MASP Working Papers
publisher =Australian National University
url =http://rspas.anu.edu.au/lmg/masp/workingpapers/20/20_02_01_P2.PDF
format =PDF
accessdate =2008-01-04 ] In the 1990s the islanders were identified as economic refugees. [cite book
last =Royle
first =Stephen A.
title =A Geography of Islands
publisher =Routledge
date=2001
pages =39
isbn =1857288653 ] Although taro has been a cultivated crop planted in watered areas, by 2002 that had been forgotten by an island leader who complained about wild taro no longer growing.cite news
last =Roberts
first =Greg
title =Islanders face rising seas with nowhere to go
publisher =The Sydney Morning Herald
date=2002-03-30
url =http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/03/29/1017206152551.html
accessdate =2008-01-04 ]The Carteret Islanders
The Carteret Islands inhabitants are a Halia-speaking community closely related to the population of Hanhan Bay, in nearby Buka Island. They are a dark-skinned people with customs very similar to those of the Buka, although with some important adaptations to the atoll environment. The Carteret Islanders call themselves the Tuluun.
Like the Halia, Hakö, Selau and Solos groups in Buka and Bougainville, the Tuluun reckon descent matrilineally. They are primarily organized into two moiety-like groups, the Nakaripa and Naboen. Unlike moieties in a true dual organization system, Nakaripa and Naboen are not exogamous in practice, though a strong preference for exogamy is usually reported. Exogamy is important in the organization of political power. Male and female chiefs attempt to organize cross-moiety marriages, the main reason for this being that the legitimation of chiefly power requires the participation of the opposite moiety.
Oral tradition states that the Carteret Islands were originally inhabited by a Polynesian group closely related to the Nukumanu, or Mortlock Islanders. The islands were discovered by a fishing expedition from Hahalis. According to the Halia tradition, the first attempt to reach the islands had a peaceful intention, but ended in the massacre of the Halia expedition. The Munihil, or paramount chief of Hanahan Bay then organized a large flotilla of canoes to attack the Polynesian population, and conquered the islands. By contrast, the Mortlock Islanders state that the Halia mounted a "blood and murder" surprise attack to remove their relatives.
Genealogical information suggest that the Halia invasion would have taken place in the early 18th century. Philip Carteret reported the population as being dark-skinned.
Physical atoll conditions
Like many other atolls throughout the Pacific Ocean this one is very low-lying and its main constituent, the coral, needs to be covered in water most of the time. Land is created by the ocean when some vegetation, such as a coconut palm or mangrove shoots, take a hold in the very much shallower parts of the reef. One tree leads to a slight buildup of coral sand around its base. This leads to more trees (palms) and the size of the individual islets on the reef grow. Over the long period the islands progress from the seaward edge of the atoll towards the lagoon as the sand is blown and washed towards the calmer shore. It is easy to determine the direction of the prevailling winds by observing the position and condition of the islets on the reef.
Palms or trees that become exposed in storms usually die by losing their grip in the little sand left at the end of the storm season. Sometimes while islets get washed right away.
People live on the larger island or islands formed around the atoll and trek back and forth to the smaller ones by walking the reef at low tide or by small canoes. Much of the taro is grown away from the habited island. It is often very vulnerable to salt-water inundation, but by being away from the living area is protected from human-waste contamination.
Flooding
It was widely reported in
November 2005 that the islands have progressively become uninhabitable, with an estimate of their total submersion by2015 . The islanders have fought a more than twenty years battle,Fact|date=January 2008 building aseawall and plantingmangroves . However, storm surges and high tides continue to wash away homes, destroy vegetable gardens and contaminate fresh water supplies. The natural tree cover on the island is also being impacted by the incursion of saltwater contamination of the fresh water table.Cause of Carteret Inundation
Paul Tobasi, the atolls' district manager with PNG's Bougainville province, and many other environmental groups who? have suggested that the flooding is the result of
sea-level rise associated with global warming. He also stated that small tidal waves were becoming more frequent.The Carteret islands likely consist of a base of coral that sits atop an extinct volcanic mount. In the usual geological course of events first proposed by
Charles Darwin , such islands eventually subside due to weathering and erosion, as well as isostatic adjustments of the sea floor. It has also been speculated that dynamite fishing in the Carterets such as occurred in the island during the prolonged Bouganville conflict may be contributing to the increased inundation.Coral reefs buffer against wave and tidal action, and so their degradation may increase an island's level of exposure to those forces. Another suggestion is that tectonic movement may be causing the gradual subsidence of the atoll. [Cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/03/29/1017206152551.html |title=Islanders face rising seas with nowhere to go |publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=2002-03-30 |first=Greg |last=Roberts]Ongoing Relocation
On
November 25 ,2003 , the Papua New Guinean government authorized the government-funded total evacuation of the islands, 10 families at a time; the evacuation was expected to be completed by2007 , but access to funding caused numerous delays.In October 2007 it was announced that the PNG government would provide two million kina (USD $736,000) to begin the relocation, to be organized by [http://www.tulelepeisa.org/ Tulele Peisa] of Buka, Bougainville. [www.starr.tv [http://www.starr.tv/] ,]
CNN has reported that the Carteret islanders will be the first island community in the world to undergo an organized relocation, in response to their island sinking. The people of the Carteret are being called the world's first environmental refugees. [ Sanjay Gupta [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/07/pacific-swallowing-remote-island-chain.html Pacific swallowing remote island chain] , "CNN", Tuesday, July 31, 2007]References
External links
* [http://web.mac.com/pipstarr/iWeb/starr.tv/Climate/97C169BA-16BE-42C1-A85B-C184C64EADBA.html God Help Me and My People] Carteret Islander Ursula Rakova describes her life on the island and her thoughts on losing them.
* [http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2007/png_carterets_200k.asx ABC TV report on the Carteret Islands] by Steve Marshall 13 March 2007
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o2AapO6rK8 Carteret Islands to be evacuated] - Video report by [http://www.starr.tv Pip Starr]
* [http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/papua_new_guinea/tectonics.html Tectonic plates in region] - University of North Dakota
* [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:xfSNuB3LXPgJ:wwwrses.anu.edu.au/geodynamics/gps/papers/png_jgr.ps+bougainville+trench+subduction Estimation of current plate motions in Papua New Guinea from GPS observations] - Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University,Canberra, A.C.T., Australia
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1650406,00.html Pacific Atlantis: first climate change refugees] - The Guardian November 25, 2005
* [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP271160.htm Islands battle rising seas for survival] - Reuters Alertnet Nov 23, 2005
* [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/03/29/1017206152551.html Islanders face rising seas with nowhere to go] - Sydney Morning Herald March 30 2002
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/picturescatalogue?action=PCSearch&mode=search&attribute2=Aggregation&term2=BIB&op1=AND&attribute1=AuthorTitleSubject&term1=carteret+islands Photographs taken on Tulun in 1960] - National Library of Australia
* [http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/png/kilinailau.htm Kilinailau Islands] at oceandots.com (includes satellite image)
* http://edition.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/tech/2007/01/16/geissler.big.melt.carteret.island.itn at cnn.com (includes video coverage)
* http://www.coexploration.org/bbsr/coral/html/body_reef_formation.htm
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