West Aitape Rural LLG

West Aitape Rural LLG
CountryPapua New Guinea
ProvinceSandaun Province
Time zoneUTC+10 (AEST)

Aitape West Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Aitape in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea.[1][2]

Sissano Lagoon is located in the LLG. This region made international news on July 17, 1998 when an earthquake with magnitude 7.0 triggered a tsunami that devastated the coastal villages of the area.

The region surrounding the Sissano Lagoon in northcentral New Guinea represents the most linguistically diverse area of the world.[3] The languages spoken in the LLG include the Piore River languages such as Bauni, Torricelli languages such as Olo Pai and Onnele, and Oceanic languages such as Sissano.[4]

In 2019 ward 12 member Sipora Yomun was elected as the President of the West Aitape Rural LLG, and Sandaun (West Sepik) Province also made history that year by electing Hon. Sipora Yomun as its Deputy Governor. She is Papua New Guinea's first ever female Deputy Governor under the Provincial Government and Local Level Government system introduced in 1997.[5]

  1. ^ "Census Figures by Wards – Momase Region". www.nso.gov.pg. 2011 National Population and Housing Census: Ward Population Profile. Port Moresby: National Statistical Office, Papua New Guinea. 2014.
  2. ^ "Final Figures". www.nso.gov.pg. 2011 National Population and Housing Census: Ward Population Profile. Port Moresby: National Statistical Office, Papua New Guinea. 2014.
  3. ^ Donohue, Mark, and Melissa Crowther. 2005. Meeting in the middle: interaction in North-Central New Guinea. In Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson and Robin Hide, eds., Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples: 167-184. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  4. ^ Miller, Steve A. 2017. Skou Languages Near Sissano Lagoon, Papua New Guinea. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 35: 1-24.
  5. ^ "Sandaun Gov't Elects First Female Deputy Governor". thepngbulletin.com. 9 September 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2023.