Omo‘a (or Omoa) is the name of a small town and valley at the head of a bay by the same name, on Fatu Hiva.
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a type of smaller bay with a circular inlet and narrow entrance. A fjord is a particularly steep bay shaped by glacial activity.
The bay of Omo‘a is the southernmost bay on the western coast of Fatu Hiva, and provides a good anchorage. The village of Omo‘a was home to 247 inhabitants at the 2002 census. The village is home to the island's only Protestant church. The valley of Omo‘a is well-watered, and curves in a half-moon shape, first to the southeast, and then to the northeast, terminating at the island's central plateau. This is where Thor Heyerdahl and his wife came ashore in 1937, an experience recorded in his book Fatu Hiva.
In geology and physical geography, a plateau, also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain, that is raised significantly above the surrounding area, often with one or more sides with steep slopes. Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment as intermontane, piedmont, or continental.
Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany, and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between separate cultures. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development. Heyerdahl subsequently made other voyages designed to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient people, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
Fatu-Hiva - Back to Nature is a book published in 1974 by archaeologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl detailing his experiences and reflections during a one-and-a-half-year stay on the Marquesan island of Fatu Hiva in 1937-38. The book was based on Heyerdahl's original report Paa Jakt efter Paradiset, which was published in Norway in 1938, but because of the outbreak of World War II was never translated and rather forgotten.
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The Marquesas Islands are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9.7812° S, 139.0817° W. The highest point is the peak of Mount Oave on Ua Pou island at 1,230 m (4,035 ft) above sea level.
In Polynesian mythology, Hawaiki is the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories.
Fatu-Hiva is the southernmost island of the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. With Motu Nao as its closest neighbor, it is also the most isolated of the inhabited islands.
With its 320 square kilometres, Hiva Oa is the second largest island in the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. Located at 9 45' south latitude and 139 W longitude, it is the largest island of the southern Marquesas group. Around 2,200 people reside on the island. A volcano, Temetiu, is Hiva Oa's highest point with 1,200 metres.
Motu Nao is the Marquesan name for a small rock island in the southeastern Marquesas Islands, approximately 22 km (14 mi) northeast of Fatu Hiva. The French name for the island is Rocher Thomasset, which in English is Thomasset Rock.
The Marquesas Islands were the first of the island groups discovered by European explorers in the Pacific. Over the centuries, these Polynesian islands have been variously known by a number of names.
Fatu Huku, also known as Fatu Uku, is a small island in the Marquesas Islands, approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Hiva Oa. Fatu Huku is less than 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long and 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide and has an area of about 1.3 square kilometres (0.50 sq mi)
Hana Vave is the name of the northernmost bay on the west coast of Fatu Hiva. The bay is sometimes called the Bay of Virgins, a translation of the French name Baie des Vierges.
Uia is the name of a town on the central eastern coast of the Marquesas island Fatu Hiva.
The Fatu Hiva monarch is a large flycatcher in the family Monarchidae. It is endemic to Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. It lives in the native dense forest at elevations up to 2300 feet. Adults are a glossy purplish-black with plush-like feathers on their foreheads and grow to around 7 ½ inches.
The ultramarine lorikeet is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae, endemic to the Marquesas Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest and plantations. It is threatened mainly by introduction of the black rat and also by deforestation.
The Fatu-liva is a fictional species of bird invented by George S. Chappell in his travel parody The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas, by Walter E. Traprock (1921). Fatu-liva were said to be found only in the fictional "Filbert Islands" in the South Pacific Ocean where they laid cube-like, black-spotted eggs that were very similar in appearance to dice. The bird's nest was described in the book as:
"...a semi-spheric bowl of closely woven grass in which lay four snow-white, polka-dotted cubes, the marvelous square eggs of the fatu-liva."
Hiva-Oa is a commune of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The commune is in the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands. Its population was 2,243 at the 2017 census.
Epicephala spinula is a moth of the family Gracillariidae, one of the most primitive groups of ditrysian "micromoths". Within its family, it belongs to the subfamily Gracillariinae. Even though it was first scientifically studied in 1929, for many decades the specimens of this moth were mistaken for the related Australian species E. colymbetella, and their distinctness was only realized in 1986. It is found on the Marquesas Islands, where it occurs at least on Nuku Hiva, Ua Pou, and Fatu Hiva, and though little-known it is apparently not uncommon. The holotype specimen, a female, is USNM 100839.
Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, and is therefore an overseas country of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as Île Marchand and Madison Island.
The Marquesan Dog or Marquesas Islands Dog is an extinct breed of dog from the Marquesas Islands. Similar to other strains of Polynesian dogs, it was introduced to the Marquesas by the ancestors of the Polynesian people during their migrations. Serving as a tribal totems and religious symbols, they were sometimes consumed as meat although less frequently than in other parts of the Pacific because of their scarcity. These native dogs are thought to have become extinct before the arrival of Europeans, who did not record their presence on the islands. Petroglyphic representations of dogs and the archaeological remains of dog bones and burials are the only evidence that the breed ever existed. Modern dog population on the island are the descendants of foreign breeds later reintroduced in the 19th century as companions for European settlers.
The French Polynesia 's 2nd constituency is a French legislative constituency in French Polynesia. It is currently represented by Nicole Sanquer of Tahoera'a Huiraatira.
