Voh

Last updated
Voh
Voh.jpg
A view of the Heart of Voh
Locator map of Voh 2018.png
Location of the commune (in red) within New Caledonia
Location of Voh
Voh
Coordinates: 20°57′33″S164°41′17″E / 20.9593°S 164.688°E / -20.9593; 164.688 Coordinates: 20°57′33″S164°41′17″E / 20.9593°S 164.688°E / -20.9593; 164.688
Country France
Sui generis collectivity New Caledonia
Province North Province
Government
  Mayor (20202026) Joel Boatate Kolekole [1]
Area
1
804.9 km2 (310.8 sq mi)
Population
 (2019 census) [2]
2,856
  Density3.5/km2 (9.2/sq mi)
Ethnic distribution
  2019 census Kanaks 63.45%
Europeans 8.65%
Wallisians and Futunans 1.58%
Mixed 13.1%
Other 13.24%
Time zone UTC+11:00
INSEE/Postal code
98831 /98833
Elevation0–1,122 m (0–3,681 ft)
(avg. 6 m or 20 ft)
1 New Caledonia Land Register (DITTT) data, which exclude lakes and ponds larger than 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) as well as the estuaries of rivers.

Voh is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean.

Contents

It has become famous for the aerial photography of what is known as The Heart of Voh, a large formation of vegetation that resembles a heart seen from above. Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand contributed to its popularity by using a photograph of the 'heart' as the dust jacket art to his books The Earth from the Air [3] and Earth from Above. [4]

Voh is also the closest large settlement to the enormous Koniambo mine, and it hosted indentured Vietnamese mineworkers from the late 1800s until the 1940s, termed the Chân Dăng.

Colonial establishment

In 1865 Kanak warriors killed workers constructing a fort at Pouangué (Gatope), and it was abandoned in 1869. In 1891 the French administration decided the vallée de Voh would be a good place for French free settlers. Land for farming was reportedly renounced voluntarily by the Kanak inhabitants, on the right bank of the river. At this time, there were no roads. Some 950 ha was surveyed by Piarchi, and lots of 0.15 ha to 380 ha were handed out for housing and livestock farming. By late 1892 23 Europeans including Georges Weiss, Jean-François Jocteur, Alexandre Paulaud and Claude Rousson, Jean-Baptiste Mirandon and former army officers Pancrace Mainard and Marin Poncet arrived and began building and farming. [5] The settlement later expanded to the left bank of the river, and Governor Paul Feillet visited in 1894. Settlers soon turned to coffee production. The town now features a Musée du Café.

Today

Mining has brought new wealth to the region, the growth of employment and new housing, and problems associated with the temporary workforce.

People of Voh

Its most famous son is André Dang Van Nha who was born in the Vietnamese labour camp in 1936, and who now has a controlling interest, as head of SMSP, in the huge Koniambo mine. [6] His father, killed building a wharf in 1937, is buried in the Voh cemetery.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nouméa</span> Capital of New Caledonia

Nouméa is the capital and largest city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Polynesian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese populations, as well as many Melanesians, Ni-Vanuatu and Kanaks who work in one of the South Pacific's most industrialised cities. The city lies on a protected deepwater harbour that serves as the chief port for New Caledonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinan</span> Walled town in Brittany, France

Dinan is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in northwestern France. On 1 January 2018, the former commune of Léhon was merged into Dinan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yann Arthus-Bertrand</span>

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a French environmentalist, activist, journalist and photographer. He has also directed films about the impact of humans on the planet. He is especially well known for his book Earth from Above (1999) and his films Home (2009) and Human (2015). It is because of this commitment that Yann Arthus-Bertrand was designated Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme on Earth Day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bắc Kạn</span> City in Vietnam

Bắc Kạn is the capital of Bắc Kạn Province, Vietnam. The province's only city, it is bordered by Bạch Thông District to the north, north-east and west and Chợ Mới District to the south-east and south-west. Bắc Kạn is 160 kilometers away from Ha Noi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia</span> Community in Nova Scotia, Canada

Grand-Pré is a Canadian rural community in Kings County, Nova Scotia. Its French name translates to "Great/Large Meadow" and the community lies at the eastern edge of the Annapolis Valley several kilometres east of the town of Wolfville on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields, framed by the Gaspereau and Cornwallis Rivers. The community was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline and is today home to the Grand-Pré National Historic Site. On June 30, 2012, the Landscape of Grand-Pré was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hưng Yên province</span> Province of Vietnam

Hưng Yên is a province in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. It covers an area of 930.22 km2 (359.2 sq mi), comprising 1 city, 8 rural districts, and 1 district-leveled town, with a population of over 1 million people as of 2019. The province is a settlement along the banks of the Red River, bordered by 5 provinces and municipalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yên Bái province</span> Province of Vietnam

Yên Bái is a province located in Tây Bắc, the northern part of northern-central Vietnam. It shares borders with six provinces which are Hà Giang province, Lào Cai province, Lai Châu province, Sơn La province, Phú Thọ province, and Tuyên Quang province. The province covers an area of 6887.46 square kilometres and as of 2019 it had a population of 821,030 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hạ Long</span> Provincial city in Quảng Ninh, Vietnam

Hạ Long is the capital city and first-class provincial city of Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. The name Hạ Long means "descending dragon". The city was founded in 1993, when the old capital, Hòn Gai, was merged with Bãi Cháy – the main tourist area. The city mainly lies on Hạ Long Bay, and is located at about 178 km (111 mi) east of Hanoi. The city's population in 2013 was 227,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaala-Gomen</span> Commune in New Caledonia, France

Kaala-Gomen is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It is situated on RT1 and is approximately 18 km south of Koumac, 50 km north of Voh, and 365 km from Nouméa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koné, New Caledonia</span> Commune in New Caledonia, France

Koné is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, a special collectivity of France in the Pacific Ocean. Koné is the provincial seat of the North Province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poum</span> Commune in New Caledonia, France

Poum is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The small town of Poum is located in the far northwest, located on the southern part of Banare Bay, with Mouac Island just offshore. Aside from French, the native language of the Kanak inhabitants is nêlêmwa-nixumwak, an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,100 people. British fishermen came to the islands in 1855 seeking sea cucumbers, and settled and intermarried, and this is reflected in the last names of some clan members and on gravestones. In the 1850s, a hundred Europeans lived on Mouac Island and John Henry Williams established a presence on Néba island.

Earth from Above is a United Nations-supported ecological project conceived and led by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The project includes a photo essay-style collection of aerial photography produced by Arthus-Bertrand, in which the photographer captured vistas of Earth from various aircraft during a ten-year period. It gave birth to a book also entitled Earth from Above, of which millions of copies were sold.

<i>Home</i> (2009 film) 2009 French film

Home is a 2009 French documentary film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre Pompidou-Metz</span> Art museum in Metz, France

The Centre Pompidou-Metz is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in Metz, capital of Lorraine, France. It is a branch of Pompidou arts centre of Paris, and features semi-permanent and temporary exhibitions from the large collection of the French National Museum of Modern Art, the largest European collection of 20th and 21st century arts. The museum is the largest temporary exhibition space outside Paris in France with 5,000 m2 (54,000 sq ft) divided between 3 galleries, a theatre, and an auditorium.

Armand Amar is a French composer, who grew up in Morocco. He won the 2008 César Award for Best Music for Le Concert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port-Cros</span> French island in the Mediterranean Sea

Port-Cros is a French island in the Mediterranean island group known as the Îles d'Hyères. It is part of the commune of Hyères, in the department of Var in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The island was donated to the French government with the promise that a national park, the Port-Cros National Park, would be created on the island. This was established on 14 December 1963. The island is 4 km (2 mi) wide and its most elevated point is 199 m (653 ft). It is 650 hectares.

The Koniambo mine is a large mine in the north of New Caledonia in the North Province. It is closest to the small town of Voh, on the west coast of the island. Nickel is found on the Koniambo Massif, and taken by conveyor to a new smelter on the coast. Koniambo has one of the largest nickel reserves in New Caledonia, with around 151 million tonnes of ore grading at 2.58% nickel. Each 62.5 million tonnes of ore contains 4 million tonnes of nickel metal.

André Dang Van Nha is a New Caledonian mining magnate, of Vietnamese origin and French/Australian/Vietnamese citizenship. He is best known for brokering a series of remarkable mining deals that also supported the Kanak cause for independence from France.

The GoodPlanet Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in 2005, supporting ecology and sustainable development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Pitiot</span> French screenwriter and film director (born 1970)

Michael Pitiot is a French screenwriter and film director. He lives and works in France.

References

  1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 4 May 2022.
  2. Population, ménages et logement par commune, en 2019, Institut de la statistique et des études économiques Nouvelle-Calédonie
  3. Arthus-Bertrand, Yann (1999-10-25). The Earth from the Air. Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN   0-500-01955-X.
  4. Arthus-Bertrand, Yann (August 2002). Earth from Above. HNA Books. ISBN   0-8109-3495-7.
  5. La France australe, 25 juillet, 1892.
  6. Pitoiset, A. and C. Wéry. 2008. Mystère Dang. Noumea: Le Rayon Vert.