Solomon Islands
Anuta
Three hundred people, one mile of island, and a supply ship once or twice a year.
The ocean holds nothing in any direction until Anuta appears, a disc of coral and green barely lifted above the swell. Houses and gardens sit between hill and reef, a few hundred metres from one another. Every voice carries, because there is nowhere on Anuta that is far from anywhere else.
Anuta is about a mile long and rises some 65 metres at its highest point, carrying a population of roughly three hundred. Language and kinship here are Polynesian in a country that is overwhelmingly Melanesian, and the community runs on lineage and shared obligation rather than anything resembling a market. Around seventy canoes are kept on the island, some of them built in the 1820s and still in use. Supply ships call once or twice a year, and Lata, the nearest place with a hospital or a secondary school, is 300 kilometres away. No electricity, no shop, no administration.
Solo
Aropa reshapes what being a guest means: someone who shares what they have may be counted as family rather than a customer. Come with time, no fixed schedule, and the boat's timetable as your own.
- Aropa is the value that governs life here: emotional attachment shown by sharing what you have. It is also the cornerstone of kinship, so anyone who shows aropa can be counted as family.
- Three hundred people live on a mile of island and feed themselves from their own gardens and the reef, with no shop to fall back on.
- There is no airstrip. A cargo boat calls once or twice a year, and the nearest hospital or secondary school is 300 kilometres away at Lata.
- Around seventy canoes are kept here, some of them built in the 1820s and still in use.
Fish, taro and breadfruit shared across households rather than sold, because there is no shop to buy anything from.
Bonito and reef fish taken from canoes, some of which have been working these waters since the 1820s.
Psara
Greece
In 1824 this island of 30,000 was destroyed rather than surrendered — a few hundred remain.
Kapingamarangi Atoll
Micronesia
A Polynesian island lost inside Micronesia, its language closer to Samoan than to its neighbours'.
Quabbin Reservoir
United States
Four drowned towns sleep beneath the reservoir; their dead left one hearse at a time.
Amorgos
Greece
A whitewashed monastery clings to a 300-metre cliff face above crashing Aegean surf.
Taro Island
Solomon Islands
A provincial capital on an island low enough that the plan is to move it.
Ontong Java Atoll
Solomon Islands
One of the largest atolls on Earth, with people living on its scattered islets.
Savo Island
Solomon Islands
Megapodes bury their eggs in black sand that an active volcano keeps warm from below.
Roviana Lagoon
Solomon Islands
Villages still lived in and islands full of shrines sit in the same lagoon.