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Tafea is the southernmost of the six provinces of Vanuatu. The name is an acronym for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa.
Unlike the other provinces of Vanuatu, the territorial integrity of this administrative unit has been unchanged since the times of the Condominium, when it was called Southern District, or Tanna after the main island. Only the capital moved from Lenakel to nearby Isangel, less than two kilometers more southeast.
A secessionist movement began in the 1970s, and the Nation of Tanna was proclaimed on 24 March 1974. While the British were more open to allowing its holdings in Vanuatu independence, it was opposed by the French colonists and finally suppressed by the Anglo-French Condominium authorities on 29 June 1974.
In 1980, there was another attempt to secede, declaring the Tafea Nation on 1 January 1980, its name coming from the initials of the five islands that were to be part of the nation (Tanna, Aniwa, Futuna, Erromango and Aneityum). British forces intervened on 26 May 1980, allowing the islands to become part of the newly independent nation of Vanuatu on 30 July 1980.
The province has a population of 32,540 [1] people and an area of 1,628 km2. The main island, though second to Erromango in area, is Tanna, with some 80 percent of the province population, with the provincial capital of Isangel, and the largest village of Lenakel, both close together on the southwest coast.
The three larger islands are Melanesian, but the smaller two, Aniwa and Futuna, also known under the collective term Erronan Islands, are Polynesian outliers. Futuna is sometimes called West Futuna to distinguish it from Futuna Island, Wallis and Futuna.
The island of Tanna has the world's most accessible volcano, Mount Yasur, with 1,084 meters the highest peak of the province. Aniwa Island is the only coral island, the other four are volcanic and reach much higher elevations than Aniwa.
Anatom is the southernmost island of Vanuatu (not counting the remote, tiny and uninhabited Matthew and Hunter Islands, 280 to 335 kilometres (174–208 miles) to the southeast, which are disputed with New Caledonia, but which are considered by the people of Anatom Island part of their custom ownership). Its southeastern cape Nétchan Néganneaing is the southernmost point of land in Vanuatu, more southerly than the southern satellite islet Inyeug. The latter, however, is surrounded Intao Reef, that extends even further south, albeit submerged, thus being the southernmost feature of Vanuatu.
| Island | main village | Land Area (km2) | Population [2] | peak | height (meters) | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tanna | Lenakel | 565 | 28,799 | Mount Tukosmera | 1,084 | |
| Aniwa | Ikaokao | 8 | 341 | – | 42 | |
| Futuna | Ihsia | 11 | 513 | Tatafou | 666 | |
| Erromango [note 1] | Potnarvin | 975 | 1,950 | Mount Santop | 886 | |
| Aneityum [note 2] | Anelgauhat | 162 | 915 | Mount Inrerow Atahein | 852 | |
| Tafea | Isangel | 1,721 | 32,549 | Mount Tukosmera | 1,084 |
Air Vanuatu is an airline with its head office in the Air Vanuatu House, Port Vila, Vanuatu. It is Vanuatu's national flag carrier, operating to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and points in the South Pacific. Its main base is Bauerfield International Airport, Port Vila.
Vanuatu has been divided into six provinces since 1994. The names in English of all provinces are derived from the initial letters of their constituent islands:
Tanna is an island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu.
Hunter Island and Matthew Island are two small and uninhabited volcanic islands in the South Pacific, located 300 kilometres (190 mi) east of New Caledonia and south-east of Vanuatu archipelago. Hunter Island and Matthew Island, 70 km (43 mi) apart, are claimed by Vanuatu as part of Tafea Province, and considered by the people of Aneityum part of their custom ownership, and as of 2007 were claimed by France as part of New Caledonia.
The nine South Vanuatu languages form a family of the Southern Oceanic languages, spoken in Tafea Province of Vanuatu.
Aneityum is the southernmost island of Vanuatu, in the province of Tafea.
Futuna is an island in the Tafea province of Vanuatu. It is the easternmost island in the country.
Erromango is the fourth largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago. With a land area of 891.9 square kilometres (344.4 sq mi), it is the largest island in Tafea Province, the southernmost of Vanuatu's six administrative regions.
Aniwa is a small island in the southernmost province of Tafea, Vanuatu.
Isangel is a town in Vanuatu.
Anatom Airport, also known as Aneityum Airport, is an airfield serving the island of Aneityum, in the Taféa province in Vanuatu. The airfield is actually located on the smaller Inyeug island.
The Vanuatu white-eye or yellow-fronted white-eye is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Zosterops in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to Vanuatu, where it is one of the most common birds.
Iolu Johnson Abil is a Vanuatuan politician. He was elected and sworn in as the president of Vanuatu on 2 September 2009.
A by-election was held in the constituency of the Southern Islands in Vanuatu in December 2009.
Lenakel, or West Tanna, is a dialect chain spoken on the western coast of Tanna Island in Vanuatu.
Inyeug Island is a small uninhabited island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. "Inyeug" means "Small Island" in a local language. Inyueg is also called Mystery Island by the cruise ships that regularly visit the island.
Vete Manung, also Vetemanu, formerly Goat Island, Île Rocher, Île de la Chèvre or La Chèvre, is a small uninhabited island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. Vete Manung Island is located 5.6 km northeast of Pointe Bodiroua on the north-east coast of Erromango Island.
The Victoria-Vanuatu Physician Project (ViVa) was a Canadian non-governmental organization of physicians and their families from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. For 24 years it supplied a medical doctor to the island of Tanna, Vanuatu.
Alexis Yolou was a New Hebridean politician. He was elected to the Representative Assembly in 1979 from the Tanna constituency, but was killed the following year as part of the civil strife on Tanna that resulted from the landslide victory of the Vanua'aku Pati.
Media related to Tafea Province at Wikimedia Commons