Ingava

Ingava, also recorded as Hingava or Gnava, was the paramount chief, bangara, of Roviana in the later nineteenth century, seated on the shore facing the fortified island of Nusa Roviana. He commanded large fleets of tomoko and directed the predatory headhunting raids for which Roviana became notorious, striking the peoples of Choiseul and Santa Isabel for trophy skulls and captives, while trading turtle-shell and controlling access to European vessels. A chief of his standing passed after death into the order of venerated tomate, his skull kept and honoured at a shrine, hope, where descendants drew on his continuing power, mana. The naval officer B. T. Somerville, who visited in the 1890s, recorded him as the commanding figure of the region.

Domains

• chieftainship
• headhunting and warfare

Powers

• commanded fleets of tomoko on predatory headhunting raids
• concentrated chiefly efficacy and became a venerated tomate after death

Epithets

• bangara pa Roviana — paramount chief of RovianaSomerville, B. T. (1897). Journal of the Anthropological Institute 26: 357-412. (primary)

Sources

• Ingava was the paramount chief of Roviana in the later nineteenth century, seated near Nusa Roviana, and the dominant figure of the region's headhunting complex.: Somerville, B. T. (1897). 'Ethnographical Notes on New Georgia, Solomon Islands,' Journal of the Anthropological Institute 26: 357-412. (primary)
• Roviana under Ingava conducted intensive predatory raids on Choiseul and Isabel for skulls and captives while trading with European vessels.: Bennett, J. A. (1987). Wealth of the Solomons. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press; Aswani, S. (2000), Journal of the Polynesian Society 109(1). (secondary)