Nias (, Nias language: Tanö Niha) (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, but also includes the Batu Islands to the south-east and the small Hinako Islands to the west. Nias Island covers an area of (including the Batu Islands to the south and minor offshore islands). It is mostly a lowland area rising to around above sea level. There were 756,338 inhabitants on the island (including the Batu Islands and minor offshore islands) at the 2010 Census; at the 2015 Intermediate Census this had risen to 798,506 and the 2020 Census resulted in a total of 880,550. The official estimate as at mid 2022 was 902,632.
Geography and history
It is located in a chain of islands parallel to the west coast of Sumatra; Simeulue is about northwest, and the Batu Islands (which are administered as part of Nias and have an ethnically similar population) are located about southeast. This chain, which resurfaces in Nusa Tenggara in the mountainous islands of Sumba and Timor, is the forearc of the South Sumatra Basin along the Sunda Trench subduction zone.
At Nias the oceanic plate is being obliquely subducted under the Sunda Plate at the rapid rate of a year (Milsom).
History
The first inhabitants of Nias were Australomelanesoid people which can be traced back as early as 10,000 BC. They were later superseded by the Austronesian people which ultimately originate from Taiwan. The name of the island derives from the word used by the islanders to refer to themselves, niha ("human"). In the local language (Li Niha), the island is called Tanö Niha (literally the land of humans).
World War II
During World War II, Nias was briefly occupied by an unrecognized Nazi state proclaimed by a group of escaped German prisoners calling themselves the Free Republic of Nias.
Tsunami and earthquakes of 2004 and 2005
On 26 December 2004 the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake struck a few kilometers north of the island, creating tsunamis as high as . 122 people were killed and hundreds more rendered homeless.
On 28 March 2005, the island was again hit by the 2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake, initially presumed to be an aftershock of the 2004 quake, but now regarded as the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Indonesia and among the top 10 most powerful recorded worldwide since 1900. At least 800 people were reported dead, with the possibility of more than 2,000 casualties. Hundreds of buildings were toppled and many thousands of people were made homeless. In 2007, almost two years after the earthquake, there were still tens of thousands of internally displaced persons living in camps throughout Nias.
Nias's coastline has changed markedly with the tsunami and earthquake. In some areas, the coast moved over inland. In other areas, as much as a further of land is exposed. Uplift of land as much as has been recorded.
Following the earthquake, many international aid agencies moved in to assist in rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. Oxfam, International Aid, Giving Children Hope, Save the Children Fund, World Vision, Surf Aid, Safe Harbor International and Caritas International are some of the international NGOs represented in Nias. UN agencies represented include UNORC – Office of the UN Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias, UNDP, UNICEF, UN-Habitat, WFP, IOM and UNIDO.
Administration
Nias is the largest of the islands off Sumatra that are part of North Sumatra province. This archipelago consists of 131 islands, of which Nias Island is the biggest. The population in this area was 756,762 inhabitants at the 2010 Census, including Ono Niha (the indigenous inhabitants of the island), Malay, Batak, and Chinese; by the 2020 Census the population had risen to 880,550, and the official estimate for mid 2022 was 902,632.