Amboi Islands

The Ambai Islands chain (Kepulauan Ambai) are an archipelago group of small islands off the southern coast of Yapen Island, in Cenderawasih Bay and Papua Province in Western New Guinea, northeastern Indonesia.

The archipelago has five main islands, including Ambai and Saweru. There also are seven medium-sized islands, and more than 15 smaller islands. The land area of the islands is 301.367 square kilometres (116.358 square miles).

Locations of major islands in the Cenderawasih Bay include:

The Ambai Islands include part of Cenderawasih Bay Marine Park which is the largest marine national park in Indonesia with an area of 1,453.5 km2. Because of its breadth, the Cenderawasih Bay Marine Park is divided into sections. Among them, "Padaido Islands Marine Park", in the east of Biak, the "Ambai Islands Marine" Park in southern Yapen, the "Harleem Islands Marine Park" in northeast Nabire, and lastly the "Cenderawasih Bay Marine Park" in the north of Wondama Bay.

Generally, the Ambai Islands region has its own characteristics and includes part of the biodiversity on the Yapen islands, including forests and hills, as well as trees species such as boat trees (pohon kayu perahu), trees to make traditional wooden drums and traditional guitar including ukulele & string bass, ironwood, bitangur, palm, katapang, coconut trees. Some of the bird species in the islands include: the bird of paradise, parrots, kakatua raja, kakatua, taun-taun, eagle, wood pigeon, cassowary, forest chicken and others. Some of the other fauna found includes: wild pig, kuskus, snake, lizard, butterfly and others. The life within coral reefs has hundreds of species of fish and other marine life local to the islands.

The Ambai people, when overseas and remembering their ancestral homeland, often call it "munu fai" or in bahasa is kampung leluhur/kampung halaman. The Ambai are a sub tribe of Melanesia. Their other word calls, the 'NU AMBAI', meaning 'Village Ambai'. But the island's' name, when translated literally from their language means: "Moon". This is due to the similarity of the word "moon" in the Ambai Language, which is Embai. So Embai became "Ambai". And thus, "Ambai" is the more familiar word used at any time, since past time ago by their ancestors and until now. Ambai peoples with speech intonation of his native language is very dynamic, it also makes dynamic in social interaction with others. The number of speakers is estimated to be 10,000. Covering around mostly on the core peoples of Ambai Islands as well as the southern and eastern part of Yapen Islands.

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