Qualla: Halmahera https://qualla.com/halmahera en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/4/g/halmahera-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Halmahera https://qualla.com/halmahera Halmahera: Introduction https://qualla.com/halmahera/ Photo credit Achmad Rabin Taim, CC BY 2.0. Between bouts of malarial fever in February 1858, on Ternate or perhaps on Halmahera itself, Alfred Russel Wallace wrote down the idea that would change biology forever. Natural selection: the survival of the fittest. He sent his letter to Darwin, and the rest is scientific history. But Wallace had come to these islands for a different reason. He was hunting the standardwing bird-of-paradise, Semioptera wallacii, which he would later call his greatest prize. The bird is endemic to Halmahera, a massive island shaped like a four-armed spider that sprawls across the equatorial sea east of the volcanic cones of Ternate and Tidore.

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Image: Achmad Rabin Taim | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/4/g/halmahera-wp/wb4g-halmahera-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Halmahera: The Spider in the Sea https://qualla.com/halmahera/ Photo credit Muhammad ECTOR Prasetyo, CC BY 2.0. Halmahera is the largest island in the Maluku chain and the biggest in all of Indonesia outside the five main islands. Its distinctive shape, four peninsulas radiating from a mountainous core, is the product of tectonic forces that continue to shape the region. The island sits on...

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Image: Muhammad ECTOR Prasetyo | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/4/g/halmahera-wp/wb4g-halmahera-the-spider-in-the-sea.mp3 0:06 2 full Halmahera: Four Kingdoms and a Forgotten Fifth https://qualla.com/halmahera/ Photo credit a_rabin, CC BY 2.0. Halmahera's history has long been shaped by powers based on smaller islands offshore. The Maloko Kie Raha, the four great kingdoms of Maluku, consisted of the sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Bacan, and Jailolo, the last of which was based on Halmahera itself. A fifth kingdom, the ...

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Image: a_rabin | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/4/g/halmahera-wp/wb4g-halmahera-four-kingdoms-and-a-forgotten-fifth.mp3 0:06 3 full Halmahera: The People of the Forest https://qualla.com/halmahera/ Photo credit exploreplants, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two related but distinct peoples share Halmahera's landscape. The Tobelo, whose name translates roughly as "people who live outside of the forest," inhabit the coastal areas. In the island's deep interior, the semi-nomadic Togutil, the "people who live inside of the forest," numb...

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Image: exploreplants | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/4/g/halmahera-wp/wb4g-halmahera-the-people-of-the-forest.mp3 0:06 4 full Halmahera: Nickel and the New Colonialism https://qualla.com/halmahera/ Photo credit Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Weda Bay Industrial Park in North and Central Halmahera hosts one of the world's largest nickel mining operations. Since Indonesia banned the export of unprocessed nickel ore in 2022, the raw material must be smelted on the island before shipping, requiring an expanding compl...

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Image: Unknown author | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/4/g/halmahera-wp/wb4g-halmahera-nickel-and-the-new-colonialism.mp3 0:06 5 full Halmahera: Between Two Capitals https://qualla.com/halmahera/ Photo credit A. Rabin, CC BY 2.0. In 2010, the provincial government of North Maluku made a decision that reshuffled the region's geography of power. The capital moved from Ternate City, the volcanic island that had dominated the region for centuries, to Sofifi, a small settlement on the western coast of Halmaher...

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Image: A. Rabin | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/4/g/halmahera-wp/wb4g-halmahera-between-two-capitals.mp3 0:06 6 full