Aua Island



Aua is an island in the Bismarck Archipelago. It is part of the Western Islands within Manus Province of northern Papua New Guinea.

History
The first sighting by Europeans of Aua island was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz de Retes on 27 July 1545 when on board of the carrack San Juan tried to return from Tidore to New Spain. He charted this island together with the nearby islands, Wuvulu and Manu, as La Barbada (the bearded island in Spanish).

Inhabitants
The genetic makeup of the island is especially diverse when contrasted against the surrounding islands in the Bismark Archipelago, the inhabitants descend from various stocks of Papuan, Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian peoples.