Ouvea Atoll

Ouvéa is a long, low island in the Loyalty group, its curved land and reefs enclosing a wide lagoon. Its people speak both Iaai and Faga Uvea, the latter a Polynesian language reflecting connections across the Pacific. In 1827 Jules Dumont d’Urville reached the island and gave it the European name Halgan; its inhabitants already possessed their own histories and ties with neighbouring Lifou.