Ouvéa

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For the yacht of the same name, see Ouvéa (ship).

Commune of Ouvéa
Orbital photo of Ouvéa (islands of Ouvéa, Mouli, Faiava, and surrounding islets), taken from space, November 1990. Courtesy of NASA.
Administration
Country	France
Sui generis collectivity	New Caledonia
Province	Islands Province
Mayor	Boniface Ounou
Statistics
Altitude	0 m–46 m (avg. 2 m)
Land area¹	132.1 km²
Population² (2004 census)	4,359
- Density (2004 census)	33.0/km²
- Ethnic distribution   (1996 census)	Kanaks 98.8% Europeans 0.8% Polynesians 0.3% Other 0.1%
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	98820/ 98814
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.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

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

Ouvéa is made up of Ouvéa Island, the smaller Mouli Island and Faiava Island, and several islets around these three islands. All these lie among the Loyalty Islands, to the northeast of New Caledonia's mainland.

The settlement of Fayaoué, on Ouvéa Island, is the administrative centre of the commune of Ouvéa.

[edit] History

In 1988, a bloody hostage taking took place on Ouvéa.

[edit] Languages

The two native languages of Ouvéa are the Melanesian Iaai and the Polynesian Faga Uvea, which is the only Polynesian language that has taken root in New Caledonia. Speakers of Faga Uvea have fully integrated into the Kanak society, and consider themselves Kanak.