'Between 2000 and 1600 BC, people of the Lapita culture appeared. Over a millennium, with long-range canoe voyages, their distinctive pottery was distributed throughout the Pacific at sites from the Bismarck Archipelago in eastern Papua New Guinea to Samoa. It has been suggested that the Lapita people were the ancestors of modern day Polynesians but it is more likely that they were absorbed into pre-existing races, as remains of their pottery show signs of cultural change from the 2 nd century AD onwards. Lapita people briefly occupied Bellona in about 1,000 BC.

The next settlements occurred on both Rennell and Bellona around 130 BC, with another major occupation in about 1000 AD thus giving Rennell great cultural significance in the history of Polynesian settlement across the Pacific. The population on Rennell and Bellona is the western-most Polynesian settlement in the Pacific. The present-day inhabitants say their ancestors landed on Bellona around 26 generations ago in about 1400 AD. There were eight couples led by a chief called Kaitu’u. Each couple produced a clan but only two clans survived. Three subclans traditionally occupied the western, central and eastern parts of Rennell and all had a patrilineal descent system.

The people of Rennell and Bellona claim their ancestors came from uvea, or Wallis in the Wallis and Futuna group. The two islands were free of cannibalism but had long periods of internecine war, with people from the east and west ends of both islands fighting each other. This continued until around the 1930’s.

EUROPEAN CONTACT AND THE MISSIONARIES

There is some uncertainty about the European discoverers but it is thought that the two islands were officially discovered in 1793 by Captain Boyd in the merchant ship Bellona, after which the smaller island was named. It is possible that Boyd only sighted Bellona as there are claims that Rennell was discovered in 1794 by Captain Butler of H.M.S. Walpole.

Undoubtedly traders, whalers and recruiters for the Queensland cane fields called there during the nineteenth century, but lack of a safe anchorage, the isolation and infertility of the island and shortage of easily obtainable fresh water prevented European settlement and establishment of trading stations.

Rennell and Bellona were declared a British Protectorate in 1898 and no-one was allowed to land on the islands without permission from the Government. It is thought that there were only five short visits by Europeans before Bishop Selwyn’s brief visit in July 1856. Bishop Selwyn became missionary bishop to the diocese of New Zealand in 1841 and in the following 26 years, he established the Anglican Church as the pre-eminent Church in New Zealand. When he arrived at Rennell he met around 20 people and 13 warriors on Bellona.

The first missionaries came in 1910 and three Melanesians stayed. An epidemic followed during which many people died and the missionaries were blamed. The pagan priest realised that this new religion represented a threat to their traditional authority and so the three missionaries were killed.

The Protectorate government closed Rennell and Bellona to outsiders to prevent further casualties and also to protect the local people from foreign diseases because they had no immunity. Isolation lasted until 1934 when three mission ships arrived to recruit a few villagers for religious training. The trainees returned in 1936. For the next two years, the people of both islands worshipped their ancient gods alongside Christianity.

In September 1938 on Rennell, a dramatic events took place during the so-called Niupani Madness. (Locally known as Panisi). Those who were undecided between Christianity and paganism were keen to find out which religion was the stronger. Believers were called on daily to pray to God or, in the pagans’ case, Semoana. One of the undecided advised the Christians to get ready for the Day of Judgement, claiming only married people could go to heaven. All the Christians were married – adults, teenagers, children, handicapped people and infants. When the Day of Judgement failed to matrialise, Christians attacked non-Christians and vice versa. Several people were killed. After three days the fervour subsided and the dead were buried. At a church service a few days later, a picture of jesus was seen to speak. His lips appeared to move but no sound was heard. This was widely reported around Rennell, convincing the vast majority to become Christian and so ending the madness.

SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITIONS

Rennell has been studied as part of eight major scientific expeditions. This indicates the high regard in which Rennell is held by the world scientific community. There are eight volumes on “The Natural History of Rennell Island” which contains mainly zoological studies collated and edited by Torben Wolff of Denmark. The American Professor, Jared Diamond explained the endemism on Rennell using the “theory of island biogeography” for which he is internationally recognized. The clarity with which the birds of Rennell demonstrate island biogeography has meant that they are often used as textbook examples in educational institutions throughout the world.

 

The first extensive study of the fauna of Rennell was made by American, Whitey South Sea Expedition (in 1928 and 1930) which concentrated on birds but made small collections of reptiles and snails. In 1933, the Templeton Crocker Expedition visited the island and collections of birds, reptiles, fish, flies, ants, algae and vascular plants were made. Some other visitors (e.g. the geogogist, G.A.V. Stanley) brought back a few specimens of animals and a single orchid.

In 1951, four members of the Danish Galathea Deep-Sea Expedition spent around five weeks on Rennell. The main purpose was ethnological studies of the Polynesian population and the party included an ethnologist, a photographer and two zoologists (including T. Wolff). In 1953, two zoologists from the British Museum of Natural History spent six weeks on Rennell and Bellona and collected insects, bats and birds. Just prior to this visit, a short trip was made to Rennell and Bellona by two parasitologists to study mosquito larval ecology and malaria distribution.

In 1954, an entomologist made two trips to Bellona to collect butterflies and in 1955 another entomologist collected aquatic bugs and several other insect groups from Rennell and Bellona. Local people were trained to use a Berlese funnel for insect collections for the Department of Agriculture, Honiara.

The last leg of the Danish Noona Dan Expedition spent two and a half weeks on Rennell in 1962. The party consisted of an entomologist, botanist, hydrologist and zoologist. The zoologist (T. Wolff) returned in 1965 when he spent three weeks on Rennell, studying the lake and flora and fauna, prior to joining the American Te Vega Expedition. When the Te Vega Expedition arrived at Rennell, marine fish were collected. The results of most of these collections have been published in the eight volumes of “The Natural History of Rennell Island, British Solomon Islands.” (Ed) T. Wolff.

In addition to the original ethnological studies done on Rennell in 1951 (by K. Birket-Smith), the language, folklore and religion of the Rennellese and Bellonese have been extensively investigated by Professor S. Elbert, Honolulu (in 1957-59, 1962 and 1963). A number of books have been written as a result of these visits. Social organization was studied on Bellona in 1962 (Mr L Christensen) and economic subsistence in 1965 and 1966 (Dr S Christiansen).

Tuhugago cliffe over looking the ocean to the right and tegano lake to the left (Kevin)

 

Since then there have been occasional visits by scientists, usually in response to some development initiative such as the proposed bauxite mining that was considered in the 1970’s. One such scientist was Professor Jared Diamond who recognized the significance of the high degree of endemism of Rennell’s avifauna and was able to explain it in relation to the “theory of island biogeography”. It is this phenomena which is so easily seen on Rennell that gives the island scientific and educational value that is of significance to the world.

More recently, in the 1990’s a scientific team on behalf of the Australian national Parks and Wildlife Service, visited to consider areas for selection as part of a national system of protected areas. To quote the report, “The island is of outstanding conservation value and one of the best natural assets of the Solomon Islands”. There have also been visits by a group from the Australian National Museum to survey and collect mammals and an AusAid funded study which was part of a nationwide survey: the Solomon Islands National Forest Resources Inventory. In 1994 a rapid ecological assessment of the marine resources of Rennell and indispensable Reefs was made. The flora of Rennell has not been studied in as much detail as the fauna but a description of the forest types and species associations that are found on Rennell, is in preparation (Wright, S.D. and J. Schenk). Staff from the Honiara Herbarium are keen to visit Rennell and make collections.

An ornithologist (J.M. Pegler) has made annual, fortnightly visits to Rennell since 1991. Her information is of considerable interest because it documents the impact of cyclone Nina in 1993 and the recovery of the bird population.

CULTURAL CHANGES

In pre-Christian times (before 1938), settlements were scattered with each being associated with a land-owning patrilineage. With the adoption of Christianity the old settlements on both islands were abandoned. Everyone moved into larger villages with newly built churches in the center. The ancient rituals, gods and traditions were replaced by fundamentalist Christianity. The two main churches on Rennell and Bellona are Seventh Day Adventist and the South Seas Evangelical Church. They prohibit ancient activities such as traditional dancing, tika-dart throwing (a .75cm javelin-like dart with a heavy, narrow, ellipse-shaped, stone front end which could be thrown almost 100m by a skilled warrior), shark fishing, eel netting, bird and flying-fox snaring, harvesting shellfish and coconut crabs, and searching for fat white or brown larvae of longicorn beetles. New tabus have been introduced such as no eating of scaleless fish, flying-foxes, grubs, shellfish and crustaceans. Among Seventh Day Adventists, chewing of betel nut is not allowed.

Houses made of custom materials at Tevaitahe Village on the shore of Lake Tegano. (P. Ryan)

With the conversion to fundamentalist Christianity, there were great changes. The people of Rennell and Bellona used to wear tapa and were ornately tattooed. They also used to press their noses together in greeting as the Maoris do but this has almost disappeared. Clothes have replaced tapa except during cultural festivals and traditional wrestling or hetakai.

Since the late 1970’s there has been a reaction against the dominance fundamentalist religion has over island life. Many people, especially the young are grateful that the killing and fighting has stopped but regret that so many old traditions have been lost and artifacts destroyed. As a consequence, many Bellonese and some Rennellese have deserted the large church-dominated villages and have returned to their traditional lands in small family settlements.

LEGENDS

Present-day Rennellese and Bellonese consider the Hiti to be the original inhabitants of the islands. They are said to have lived in caves and in the forest. The Hiti were seldom dangerous but played tricks on the newly arrived Polynesians, such as taking their women away. The Hiti could disappear at will, had beautiful gardens, could easily find water on porous Rennell and taught the Polynesians how to cook some plants. They had long hair and were short, light-brownish people with skin as hairy as a flying-fox’s. They were gradually eliminated in what the Bellonese call the Hiti Wars. There are still occasional reports of Hiti being seen but most people regard these as dreams or fantasy.

POPULATION

The population on Rennell has never been large. The current population is around 1,500 people and this is declining through migration to Honiara and the plantations of the Russell Islands. Despite the migration, the population of Rennell and Bellona is young with 42 percent under 15 years of age (at the last census, 1986). About a third of the population of East Rennell (approximately 500 people) live in the four villages around the lake.' Source; Nomination of EAST RENNELL, SOLOMON ISLANDS by the Government of the Solomon Islands for Inclusion in the World Heritage List Natural Sites.

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