Pitufa.at » Photo Galleries » Takuu Atoll, Papua New Guinea

Takuu is one of the remotest atolls of PNG, about 400 islanders of Polynesian descent live there in a rather crowded, dense little village. Another motu is their dedicated garden island and the others are left uninhabited. A pretty place with healthy reefs, seabird motu and incredibly welcoming people! Erosion is gnawing on the shores and the islanders fight it with seawalls, hoping that they will be able to stay on their homeland for a while longer despite the rising sea levels.

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1/56: Takuu is a little atoll with just one inhabited island.
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3/56: 400 people live crowded together in a densely built village.
4/56: Most of the 80 school kids came along on our village tour!
5/56: Houses and mats are woven from coconut and pandanus leaves.
6/56: Some islanders raise seabird chicks as pets.
7/56: Grating coconuts
8/56: Seawalls to fight the erosion that's gnawing on the islands...
9/56: Everybody came to see the performances on the children's day.
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18/56: I gave a presenation about plastic pollution at school.
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20/56: Christian tried to fix the dodgy solar array in the meantime.
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22/56: We collected plastic trash in the village to raise awareness. Hopefully plastic will be burned in the future instead of throwing it into the sea...
23/56: We offered to share out internet connection and everybody came to Pitufa-Internet-Cafe to catch up with relatives on other islands!
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26/56: We did a tour to the uninhabited motu just north of the village.
27/56: Densely forested islands with lots of birds!
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29/56: "Queen Emma" (a Tongan princess who married European adventurers and made quite a fortune) bought one of the islands at some point--ruins remain from her house and plantation.
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31/56: We tried to take Smurfy ashore for a walk.
32/56: But he just quickly wanted to go home again!!
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35/56: The underwater world was fabulous!
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51/56: We also visited the remote bird motu on the NW side of the atoll
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56/56: It was difficult to say good-bye to beautiful Takuu and its lovely islanders! We left with lots of good-bye presents...