History
Like Manra, Orona contains evidence of prehistoric Polynesian inhabitation. An ancient stone marae stands on the eastern tip of the island, together with ruins of shelters, graves and other platforms.
No one is certain who discovered Orona or when, but history shows that it was named "Hull Island" in honor of Commodore Isaac Hull, USN by Commander Charles Wilkes of the USS Vincennes when he visited the island on 26 August 1840 in the United States Exploring Expedition. It continued to be generally known by this name until the Republic of Kiribati was granted independence in 1979, when its name was changed to the I-Kiribati Orona.
Unlike Manra, Orona does not seem to have been worked for guano, and was apparently not claimed (unlike the other Phoenix Islands) by American guano diggers. The British flag was raised there on 11 July 1889, and the island became part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. Orona was leased in 1916 to a Captain Allen of the "Samoan Shipping and Trading Company", and became a copra plantation. Allen's lease was bought out by the British government in 1938.
It was one of the islands involved in the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme, the final colonial expansion of the British Empire. Residents were evacuated in 1963, due to persistent drought and the declining copra market. Photos of the abandoned settlement, Arariki, circa 1967, may be seen here.
British and American claims to the island ended in 1979 with the independence of Kiribati from Great Britain and the signing of the Treaty of Tarawa by the United States.
The island was briefly reoccupied between 2001 and 2004 by trepangers from the Gilbert Islands supported by a patrol boat of the Kiribati Navy.
Orona, together with the other Phoenix Islands, was proclaimed in 2008 to be part of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, the world's largest marine protected area.
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