Moratau

The Moratau represent the Molima-speaking villagers of western Fergusson, the largest of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, a rugged, rainforested land across narrow straits from Goodenough and Normanby. Their language, Molima, also called Ebadidi or Fagululu after its principal villages, is an Oceanic tongue of the Papuan Tip group, closely related to Dobu, a regional lingua franca.

Gardeners and fishermen of the mountain valleys and coves, these communities traded across the Dawson and Moresby straits with their Dobu and Goodenough neighbors, exchanging pots, sago and shell valuables along sea lanes later used by Dobu-speaking missionaries.

The archipelago was unknown to Europeans until 1792, when the French d'Entrecasteaux expedition sighted its forested shores, leaving the islanders' village-based, clan-organized way of life undisturbed for another long generation.