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The West Uvean of New Caledonia

The West Uvean of New Caledonia, numbering approximately 2,700 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are descendants of Wallisian Polynesian navigators who settled Ouvea in New Caledonia's Loyalty Islands in the late 1600s, whose Fagauvea speech is the only Polynesian language to count in base five, under influence from the neighboring Iaai people. They mostly adhere to Roman Catholicism and West Uvean is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: West Uvean

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Pacific Islander Peoples
Country: New Caledonia
People Cluster: Polynesian
Primary Language(s): West Uvean (uve)
Primary Religion(s): Roman Catholicism
Population: 2,700
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG018383
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Pray for the West Uvean of New Caledonia

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Roman Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

90%
%
Roman Catholicism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: West Uvean
Language Family: Austronesian

78%
%
Fagauvea Speakers

Media Resources in West Uvean:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in West Uvean:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the West Uvean bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the West Uvean:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the West Uvean of New Caledonia

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
readExodus 2:23-24

As the lost among them labor, groan, and cry out under false religions and sin, pray God will have mercy on them and hear their cries, that He will be their Rescuer from the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of light.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
readJohn 3:14-15

Pray that the lost will look to Jesus lifted up on the cross and believe in Him, gaining eternal life with God.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
readHebrews 10:23

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will cling tightly to the hope they have in God to faithfully keep His promises.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
readJohn 1:9-10

Pray for those God might send to share the gospel here. Ask that they will grow closer to Jesus and be compelled to share His good news with people who don't know it.

West Uvean Across Countries (ROP3 - 110766) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index

All

1 people group

Photo People Group ID Name Country Population ▼ Strategic Progress Index Language Religion
West Uvean PG018383 West Uvean New Caledonia 2,700 Unengaged and Unreached West Uvean Roman Catholicism

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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