Nyelayu

The Nyelayu are the Kanak people of the northernmost tip of Grande Terre in New Caledonia and of the Belep islands just offshore. Their Nyâlayu language stands in the extreme-northern group of the New Caledonian languages, with two dialects barely mutually intelligible: Pooc on the Belep islands, and Puma on the mainland around Poum, Pouébo and Balade.

This split mirrors the sea lanes and mountain spurs that have divided far-northern clans since Lapita times around 1100 BC. Islanders and mainlanders lived from taro gardens, reef fishing and long canoe voyages, exchanging ornaments and shell valuables between chiefdoms.

At Balade, in Puma country, James Cook came ashore in September 1774, meeting and trading with the local Kanaks and giving Europe its first close look at a New Caledonian people. Permanent European contact did not follow for another two generations.