Laulasi

Laulasi Island

Native name: Akwalaafu
Current map of Langa Langa lagoon, Malaita Solomon Islands
Geography
Location	Pacific Ocean
Coordinates	8°52′43.22″S 160°44′46.55″E / 8.8786722°S 160.7462639°E / -8.8786722; 160.7462639Coordinates: 8°52′43.22″S 160°44′46.55″E / 8.8786722°S 160.7462639°E / -8.8786722; 160.7462639
Archipelago	Solomon Islands
Area	100 m2 (1,100 sq ft)
Length	100 m (300 ft)
Width	100 m (300 ft)
Administration
Solomon Islands
Province	Malaita Province
Largest settlement	Honiara (pop. 54,600 (2003 est.))
Demographics
Population	20 (2008)
Pop. density	2.2 /km2 (5.7 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Melanesian 100%

Laulasi island is an artificial island in the Langa Langa Lagoon, South of Auki on the island of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. It is believed that hostilities among the inlanders of Malaita forced some people into the lagoon where over time they built their islands on sandbars after diving for coral. The religion of the island was based on prayers and offerings to the ghosts of dead ancestors, mediated by priests who kept their skulls and relics in tabu houses. Some ancestors were incarnated as sharks which protected their descendants. Langalanga is also the main source of the shell money now made in Solomon Islands.

In Malaita legend, the first settlement on the island began around 3,000 BC at a place called Siale. The first places in the Malaita area to be settled were Dukwasi (Kwara'ae speaking people), and the Asi (man-made islands) namely: Aoke, Kaloka and Rarata in Langa Langa lagoon, Laulasi, Alite Koalia and Gwa'ata – Ta'alulolo.

It is also believed the early settlers originated from Mt. Kolovrat (Alasa'a), the highest peak on the main Malaita Island. The early settlers were believed to be castaways from the Alasa'a community. Some said they chose not to return to Alasa´a because of the distance. It is an approximately two days walk. And the main reason why they came is to fish and in search for other sea foods in the island of Launasi meaning ´´I'm stuck´´now known as Laulasi. From then they named the island Launasi in relation to the expression.

After they had settled, other people began to arrive from different parts of Malaita and outside to settle in the Langalanga lagoon. They came from Small Malaita, Florida (Ngella), some came from the northern part of Guadalcanal believed to be from Longuvalasi area and others from the northern region of Malaita. Through inter-marriages, their descendants spread to the whole of the Langalanga lagoon. Certain cultural features or Tambu House (Place of the first settlements) are still preserved which attest to the settlement patterns that were made.

In 1892 the Queensland government Australia abandoned the Pacific labour trade known as Blackbirding and in 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia enacted the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 which facilitated the deportation of Pacific Islanders that was the precursor to the White Australia policy.