Metkayina Home

The Met­kayina live in mul­ti­ple vil­la­ges of marui that hang among the giant roots of man­gro­ve trees.  Some Met­kayina vil­la­ges have exis­ted for thou­sands of years. The main one is cal­led Awa’atlu. Awa’atlu has small docks for canoes, a cen­tra­li­zed ilu pen, and com­mu­nal are­as for gathe­ring, eating, and the tel­ling of tales and sin­ging of songs. Ten­si­le woven walk­ways link all the marui throug­hout the village.

Com­mu­nal are­as are lar­ge, open marui.

The man­gro­ve trees that make up the foun­da­ti­on for the Met­kayina’s vil­la­ges are on a cen­tral island within an atoll, which is just under 300 miles nor­the­ast of the Oma­ti­ka­ya’s rain­fo­rest. The atoll is a ring shaped sea­wall appro­xi­m­ate­ly 30 miles across. The struc­tu­re has a num­ber of ope­nings, cal­led ‘pas­ses,’ which allow the tide to flow in and out.

The ter­ra­ced tide pools are uni­que to Pan­do­ran reefs. Tun­nels lined with powerful inver­te­bra­te colo­nies pump water to the top of the bar­ri­er reef, whe­re it wells up in pools and cas­ca­des down, forming ter­races. This adapt­a­ti­on allows, over mil­li­ons of years, the corals to grow high abo­ve the water-line, quite unli­ke any coral reefs found on Earth. The upward water flows can bring in uni­que fishes from the oce­an that the Met­kayina rare­ly encoun­ter in the shal­lows. The Met­kayina belie­ve that the sea­wall was crea­ted by Eywa to enc­lo­se the lagoon and pro­mo­te life.