| Ouvéa | |
| Commune Status: | Commune |
| Province: | Loyalty Islands Province |
| Map Size: | 270px |
| Adjustable Map: | Locator map of Ouvéa 2018.png |
| Map Caption: | Location of the commune (in red) within New Caledonia |
| Insee: | 98820 |
| Postal Code: | 98814 |
| Mayor: | Maurice Tillewa[1] |
| Term: | 2020 - 2026 |
| Coordinates: | -20.6522°N 166.5619°W |
| Elevation M: | 2 |
| Elevation Min M: | 0 |
| Elevation Max M: | 46 |
| Area Km2: | 132.1 |
| Population: | 3401 |
| Population Date: | 2019 census |
| Population Footnotes: | [2] |
| Ethnic: | Kanaks 90.91% Europeans 0.47% Wallisians and Futunans 0.03% Mixed 3.97% Other 4.62% |
| Ethnic Date: | 2019 census |
Ouvéa (pronounced as /uˈve.a/) or Uvea is a commune in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The settlement of Fayaoué pronounced as /faˈjawe/, on Ouvéa Island, is the administrative centre of the commune.[3]
Ouvéa is made up of Ouvéa Island, the smaller Mouli Island and Faiava Island, and several islets around these three. All lie among the Loyalty Islands, to the northeast of New Caledonia's mainland.
Ouvea has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of red-bellied fruit doves, Ouvea parakeets, grey-eared honeyeaters, New Caledonian friarbirds, cardinal myzomelas, fan-tailed gerygones, long-tailed trillers, streaked fantails, Melanesian flycatchers and striated starlings.[4]
Ouvéa has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification Am). The average annual temperature in Ouvéa is . The average annual rainfall is with March as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in February, at around, and lowest in July, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Ouvéa was on 7 February 2016; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 10 August 1981.
Ouvéa is a Polynesian outlier originally settled by Polynesian navigators who named it for their home island, Uvea Island. Some of their descendants still speak the West Uvean language.
See main article: Ouvéa cave hostage taking. In April 1988, a hostage taking took place on Ouvéa. Four gendarmes were killed and twenty-seven were held hostage in a cave by supporters of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front. Twelve of the captured gendarmes were released after a while, but six members of a French anti-terrorist squad were also taken hostage. When negotiations to release the hostages did not succeed, French security forces besieged the cave and freed them. Eighteen Kanaks and two gendarmes were left dead. In the aftermath it was alleged that three Kanaks had been executed or left to die after being arrested.
The native languages of Ouvéa are the Melanesian Iaai and the Polynesian Faga Uvea, which is the only Polynesian language that has taken root in New Caledonia. Speakers of Faga Uvea have fully integrated into the Kanak society and consider themselves Kanak.