The Nuaulu tribe are divided into two groups, namely the northern and the southern groups. Numbering at a total of 2500 people, they inhabit in the Amahai district of Central Seram. The Northern Nuaulu inhabit in two villages on the north coast of central Seram Island, whlist the Southern group inhabit six villages on the south coast and interior of Amahai District.
Ethnically related to the Manusela, they are similar to the Manusela in language and follow the Naurus faith. However, they do not follow any form of Hinduism, though traces of Hinduism might be found in their rituals. They are more inclined to Christianity than the Manusela in faith, though they still adhere to their Animist Naurus faith at the same time.
Nuaulu claim to 'own' all forest from Manusela in the east to the Tala river and the sacred mystical mountain of Nunusaku in the west, and across the spine of the island as far as the north coast, placing much emphasis on the distribution of sago reserves.
Those Nuaulu who have re-located in the new settlements seem to derive considerable comfort from having achieved a kind of homecoming, and certainly this is reflected in the satisfaction it is said to have afforded the ancestors.
The historical movement of the Nuaulu to the coast (1870 onwards) had the twin effects of preserving patches of interior forest which might otherwise have been transformed, and of marginally intensifying the cutting of coastal forest, where they were in competition with pre-existing populations.
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