Nguna - Settlements

There are approximately thirteen villages on Nguna. While all are clean and compact in design, village size varies from a dozen inhabitants to over 200, with the majority having 60-70 people. Housing itself varies in terms of style and materials, most being a combination of traditional and European. The traditional house form has been described as being like an upturned boat, having rounded, closed ends, a low crawl-through entrance, and no windows. The largest remaining example of this type of structure (some 20 by 8 meters in dimensions) is the village meeting house ( varea ) in Nguna's largest village. Houses made in this way, though on a much smaller scale, were relatively easy to heat (though smoky) and resistant to hurricanes, but the wood and thatch would rot within a few years, making attractive (though expensive) the more durable Western materials, such as corrugated iron roofing sheets and concrete blocks. In terms of village location, historically government officials and missionaries encouraged people to move down to the coast, but recently that trend has begun to reverse. As the population has risen People have increasingly sought less crowded, cooler, and airier sites for their homes on the bluffs above and behind the coastal villages. In a few cases long-deserted inland village sites are beginning to be reoccupied.