Two atolls make this group, Nuguria and Malum. Each atoll has a series of smaller islands around it. The atolls are some 200 kilometres north of Buka Township and 260 kilometres east of Namatanai, part of New Ireland Province. The population was originally Polynesian like that of the Carteret and the Matlock Islands, now there is a mixture of both Polynesian and Melanesian backgrounds.