Santa Ana Islands, Solomon Islands
Locally know as Owa Raha, Santa Ana Island is a small, isolated island off the southeastern tip of Makira Island, the major island in the Makira Ulawa Province. The islands in this province are sometimes referred to as the Eastern Solomons. The province has a population of about 28,000 people, and is well known for its preservation of ancient traditions. Although little prehistory of the Solomom Islands is known, material excavated on Santa Ana Island indicates that the first inhabitants were a hunter-gatherer people who must have descended from Neolithic Austronesian-speaking people who migrated here from Southeast Asia. The Lapita people, famous for their beautiful, fire-hardened, tempered pottery, settled on Makira Island about 1400 BC. For many centuries, ceramics were made in this area and trade flourished with the Temotu Province.
Maneuvering through the narrow entrance channel, Captain Karl Ulrich-Lampe brought the National Geographic Endeavour into the small bay known as Port Mary on the western side of Santa Ana Island. As each Zodiac approached the landing beach, small bands of local men armed with spears and shields greeted us with a traditional welcome/challenge performance known as the Mara-mara-tafa. This is a ritual reserved for important visitors coming to the island, and I must report that while we enjoyed the authenticity of the attacks, being scared to death by masked, mud-smeared savages and not being killed or eaten is always a bonus.
The islanders then performed several traditional and crazy looking dances, with incredible costumes, including the Ai-Matawa-Aifono-Fono, a traditional performance depicting two types of peoples, the dark, black mud-covered locals (representing Melanesians) and the lighter reddish-brown mud-covered newcomers or “invaders” (representing any outsiders including Polynesians). The story we watched played out represented a challenge whereas the local Melanesians symbolically “drive away” or defeat the invaders.
We took millions of photos, especially of the local children who yelled and screamed and really got into the performances. Some of us bought handicrafts and carvings, and some of us headed over to the other side of the island toward the Spirit House in search of endemic birds and plants. We also had a wonderful site for snorkeling set up just outside the entrance channel where we saw colorful corals and fishes from just a few feet of water all the way to the deep dark depths beyond the slopes of the rapidly descending reef wall. Santa Ana is definitely one of the more exotic villages we have visited so far, and we take with us fond memories of friendly, interesting people living on a fascinating island rich in tradition and history.
Locally know as Owa Raha, Santa Ana Island is a small, isolated island off the southeastern tip of Makira Island, the major island in the Makira Ulawa Province. The islands in this province are sometimes referred to as the Eastern Solomons. The province has a population of about 28,000 people, and is well known for its preservation of ancient traditions. Although little prehistory of the Solomom Islands is known, material excavated on Santa Ana Island indicates that the first inhabitants were a hunter-gatherer people who must have descended from Neolithic Austronesian-speaking people who migrated here from Southeast Asia. The Lapita people, famous for their beautiful, fire-hardened, tempered pottery, settled on Makira Island about 1400 BC. For many centuries, ceramics were made in this area and trade flourished with the Temotu Province.
Maneuvering through the narrow entrance channel, Captain Karl Ulrich-Lampe brought the National Geographic Endeavour into the small bay known as Port Mary on the western side of Santa Ana Island. As each Zodiac approached the landing beach, small bands of local men armed with spears and shields greeted us with a traditional welcome/challenge performance known as the Mara-mara-tafa. This is a ritual reserved for important visitors coming to the island, and I must report that while we enjoyed the authenticity of the attacks, being scared to death by masked, mud-smeared savages and not being killed or eaten is always a bonus.
The islanders then performed several traditional and crazy looking dances, with incredible costumes, including the Ai-Matawa-Aifono-Fono, a traditional performance depicting two types of peoples, the dark, black mud-covered locals (representing Melanesians) and the lighter reddish-brown mud-covered newcomers or “invaders” (representing any outsiders including Polynesians). The story we watched played out represented a challenge whereas the local Melanesians symbolically “drive away” or defeat the invaders.
We took millions of photos, especially of the local children who yelled and screamed and really got into the performances. Some of us bought handicrafts and carvings, and some of us headed over to the other side of the island toward the Spirit House in search of endemic birds and plants. We also had a wonderful site for snorkeling set up just outside the entrance channel where we saw colorful corals and fishes from just a few feet of water all the way to the deep dark depths beyond the slopes of the rapidly descending reef wall. Santa Ana is definitely one of the more exotic villages we have visited so far, and we take with us fond memories of friendly, interesting people living on a fascinating island rich in tradition and history.
