Qualla: New Georgia

New Georgia: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit edited by M.Minderhoud, Public domain. The 13th-century builders stacked the stones high on the headlands of central New Georgia, raising megalithic shrines whose purpose archaeologists are still decoding eight centuries later. By the 15th century, the Roviana people had shifted seaward, building a new capital on Nusa Roviana in the barrier islands of the southern lagoon. From that island hub they ran a trade and raiding network that reached across hundreds of miles of Pacific water, their war canoes carved with the spirit figureheads now held in museums as far away as London. The island has a very long memory.

Read more: New Georgia on Qualla

Image: edited by M.Minderhoud | Public domain

New Georgia: A Volcanic Spine

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graeme Bartlett, CC BY-SA 4.0. The island itself is a slab of volcanic rock 85 kilometers long and 41 kilometers wide, the 203rd-largest island in the world and the biggest in Solomon Islands' Western Province. Mount Masse rises 860 meters at the crown. Cyclones roll through regularly; mangroves fill the marsh...

Read more: New Georgia on Qualla

Image: Graeme Bartlett | CC BY-SA 4.0

New Georgia: Ten Languages on One Island

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit edited by M.Minderhoud, Public domain. About 19,000 people lived on the island at the 1999 census. Most settled along the southern coast, where the water is calmer and the land workable. The biggest village is Munda on the west, with Sege holding the southeastern shore. The Kalikoqu tribe occupies the Roviana Lagoon, ...

Read more: New Georgia on Qualla

Image: edited by M.Minderhoud | Public domain

New Georgia: Chief Ingava and the Colonial Peace

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arthur Phillip?, Public domain. Captain John Shortland sailed past in August 1789, returning to England with four ships of the First Fleet, and named what he saw. More than a century later, on 15 March 1893, Captain Herbert Gibson formally declared the island part of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Th...

Read more: New Georgia on Qualla

Image: Arthur Phillip? | Public domain

New Georgia: The Worst Jungle Fighting

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit edited by M.Minderhoud, Public domain. The Empire of Japan occupied New Georgia early in the Pacific War and built the airfield at Munda under camouflage of living palm trees. Allied landings came on 30 June 1943, opening the New Georgia Campaign. What followed was seven weeks of the most miserable fighting the Americ...

Read more: New Georgia on Qualla

Image: edited by M.Minderhoud | Public domain

New Georgia: A Lagoon of Layers

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daderot, Public domain. What remains on New Georgia now is a landscape that holds all of this at once. The megalithic shrines of the Roviana highlands are still there, still being mapped by archaeologists. The war canoe traditions continue in carving workshops around the lagoon. Munda has become a town ...

Read more: New Georgia on Qualla

Image: Daderot | Public domain