Malaita

Hello
does anybody knows details about the tribes, interesting places (with acces).....on the island of Malaita?

Stefaan

Thank you for reading the message.

My voyage: 30 July - 20 August

I guess by "tribes" you mean the interior Kwaio people much hyped-up by LP.
I found them throroughly unfriendly and VERY greedy, spoilt rotten by the expensive group tours that visit them, mostly from Sweden. The most unwelcoming people I encountered in the whole South Pacific! If you do insist on visiting them, be prepared to shell out a lot of money and go on a guided tour, and then to find men in modern dress (unless the guide stages them to dress up for you in loinclothes), with only women in traditional wear.

In contrast, the other people in Malaita are very friendly.
Visiting some of the off-shore islands, including artificial ones, could be very worthwhile - OG will probably fill you with info on the Lau Lagoon. Malaita also happens to be pretty much the cheapest place in the country for food and accommodation.

Hello
thank you for the info.
What do you mean with OG?
Stefaan

Ozziegiraffe aka OG is the main Solomons expert on this branch, and specifically likes to promote Malaita. She is travelling in Europe right now, which must be the reason she rarely gets online, but you can be quite sure she will reply to this thread once she gets the chance!

Hi, Stefaan,
If you copy and paste the address in my signature line at the bottom of the post, you will find a site that gives a variety of Solomon Islands experiences.
Like Laszlo, I would not really recommend visiting the Kwaio, though most of them are great people, it has tended to be a handful of Kwaio that have given the rest of Malaita a bad name.They became famous due to the work of an anthropologist called Roger Keesing. However, there are about 10 other tribal groups on Malaita and small Malaita, as well as the Polynesian people of the outlying island groups of Ontong Java and Sikaiana.
The one that have fascinated me since I first went to Solomon Islands are the island builders, who have lived on artificial islands in the Lau and Langa Langa Lagoons for hundreds of years.
I also have friends among the Kwara'ae, Tobaita, Baegu, Are'Are and Sa'a people.
Probably the best summary of the Malaitan language groups is in one of the first 3 editions of the Lonely Planet Solomon Islands guide books - you may locate one of them in a library or second-hand bookshop.
Malaita is easy to get to compared with many places in Solomon Islands. There are daily flights from Honiara, as well as at least one fast boat daily to the capital, Auki. More remote places can be accessed by ship from Honiara up to once a fortnight (except the Polynesian outliers).
From Auki, there are now fairly good roads to the rest of Kwara'ae, Lau and Langa Langa Lagoons, and Tobaita (Malu'u and Bita'ama) Baegu (inland from Lau) and Are'Are areas.
Please feel free to PM me about what you are particularly interested in.