The word banua or vanua (the latter from various languages of Melanesia, see below) – meaning "land," "home," or "village" – occurs in several Austronesian languages. It derives from the Proto-Austronesian reconstructed form *banua.Entry *banua — Robert Blust. 2010. Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD). Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Mānoa.Thomas Anton Reuter, Custodians of the Sacred Mountains: Culture and Society in the Highlands of Bali, University of Hawaii Press, 2002, p.29Thomas Anton Reuter, Sharing the Earth, Dividing the Land: Land and Territory in the Austronesian World, ANU E Press, 2006, p. 326. The word has particular significance in several countries.
