Inter-Island Communities & Maps of Temotu Province
People of Southeast Solomons (Temotu Province)
Polynesian people live on many islands in Temotu Province (which includes the region called Santa Cruz Islands). The Duffs Group has 7 Islands. The biggest island is named Taumako. Polynesian people also live in Outer Reef Islands of Nifiloli, Matema, Pileni, Nukapu, Nupani, and a few communities on Fenualoa, and far to the East and South on Tikopia and Anuta. Polynesians also live in isolated coastal settlements of Ndeni (Santa Cruz Island), Vanikoro and Utupua. People of Temotu people speak Melanesian and Austronesian languages.
Taumako Community
Most people in Temotu Province speak Austronesian languages. South of Temotu in Vanuatu, most Banks and Torres Islanders also speak Austronesian languages. According to linguists, Austronesian is an older language ʻfamilyʻ that Polynesian language developed from.
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When voyaging canoes were plying this region, many of them were built at Taumako/Duffs Group. Polynesians liked to marry people from different islands. The suppression of locally controlled transport during British and Australian control, and until today, has made it impossible to keep up the vital “partnerships” between people of these islands. According to the late Chief Kaveia and other old people who once participated in voyaging in Temotu, it is the loss of these partnerships that most frustrated the continuation or revival of voyaging in Temotu. Thus, it is the partnerships between people of different islands that must be re-created or revived for voyaging to grow again in Temotu. That means that there must be a period of exploratory voyages and the relationships need to be reinitiated.
On the very first voyage of the Vaka Taumako Project (VTP) one young man of the Taumako crew met his wife to be at Nifloli, and before the Taumako crew left Nifiloli, the parents of the two made preliminary arrangements for the marriage to occur the following year. Marriages have resulted on every inter island voyage since the start of the VTP. There are many more young people hoping to find marriage partners on distant islands, and hoping to arrange an order to build a canoe for someone from a different island.
People have lived on Taumako for over 2700 years. Chief Kaveia said that when he was a small boy – maybe about 6 to 8 years old, there were over 2000 people living on Taumako. Then an epidemic illness struck and all but 37 people died. That occurred a year or more before 1920.
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In 1996 the community of Taumako totaled only about 350 people. Then the VTP got started and about 200 more people came on the next ship to participate in building a voyaging canoe.​
There are various family groups in which people are related through their mother’s relatives /or through their father’s relatives. There were 6 or 7 matrilineal groups until some decades ago when the Temotu Provincial Government began recognising “15 tribes.”
Duff Islanders have a reputation for doing Kastom (customs) that are rarely observed elsewhere these days. Each person observe a series of life maturation rites during their lives. – such as a feast for the first time a child is given holes in their ears and turtle shell earrings to wear, or a feast for workers on every day that they work on a voyaging canoe, or the use of limed sticks and ritualized words to control rain or wind, or the use of a smoking stick to have a dream to see who was the culprit who stole something from somebody.
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Above is a 1799 map of Duff Islands. Taumako is a high island, as are other smaller islands in the Duffs Group. The nearest islands are the Reefs Group, which is comprised of atolls. Some natural resources exist on Duff Islands that are needed in the Reef Islands, such as trees for canoes, paddles, and house posts, Sago leaves for roofing panels, and volcanic stones for earth ovens. Taumako canoe makers provided voyaging canoes and paddles to their partners for hundreds or thousands of years. The Reef Islands have huge fish and reef resources. They once had giant nut and breadfruit orchards, which have lately revived a little bit since use of DDT has decreased and some birds have returned to pollinate these crops.
Rebuilding Partnerships
Prior to colonization, Polynesians had dynamic partnerships with non-Polynesian (often called "Melanesian") people of Santa Cruz and other islands. One recent Premier of Temotu, for example, was the grandchild of a Matema woman. Taumako people, including Chief Kaveia, sold voyaging canoes to Chiefs in Graciosa Bay, and other predominantly non-Polynesian Islands.
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Taumakan children and youths are eager to learn every aspect of building and sailing voyaging canoes. Adults are also eager to work as volunteers. Yet parents must earn enough money to pay school fees for their children, and food must be provided to the workers for a year or two while a vaka is being made. This means that more food is needed than can be grown on Taumako. PTS has fundraised for the cost of food and transport since 1996. PTS also helped HVTA get a grant that supported installing satellite internet equipment at the Halevaka (Canoe House) of Holau Vaka Taumako Association. This enables HVTA to communicate with students from islands in Solomons and internationally. This enables planning for voyages of reconnection and revival of inter-island voyaging networks that make every island more sustainable and resilient.
Below is a map of Vanikoro Island and fringing reef, made by Alex Francois. Vanikoro residents told Alex the places around the island where 17 named winds are observed. These names are similar to named wind positions that Te Aliki Kaveia taught as part of the 32 named wind positions of the what is called Te Nohoanga Te Matangi - an ancient wind positioning knowledge and navigation system used by Taumako and Vaeakau people, and others in the SE Solomon Islands region and by many Polynesian and Austronesian people across Oceania
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Chief Fox Boda is now leading the construction of a Te Alo Holau type of deep-sea voyaging canoe. When this Te Alo Holau is launched, perhaps in July or August, 2025, youths will train in sailing and navigating it to other islands, including Vanikoro.
Chief Fox’ wife is from Matema, and they work to strengthen the ties between Matema and Taumako. Island people thrive when they form and grow larger inter-island communities. For this they need voyaging canoes. Voyaging canoes = community for everyone in this huge oceanic region.
