Ouvéa

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

Administration
Commune of Ouvéa

Orbital photo of Ouvéa (islands of Ouvéa, Mouli, Faiava, and surrounding islets), taken from space, November 1990. Courtesy of NASA.
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 mi² 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 April 1988, a bloody hostage taking took place on Ouvéa. Four gendarmes were killed and twenty-seven were held hostage in a cave by supporters of FLNKS. Twelve of the captured gendarmes were released afterwhile, but six members of a French anti-terrorist squad were also taken hostage. When negotiations to release those taken hostage did not succeed, French security forces sieged the cave and freed the hostages. Eighteen Kanaks and two gendarmes were left dead, and in the aftermath, it was alleged that three Kanaks had been executed or left to perish after being arrested.

[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.