Jamin, a male Novan, in 2151
Nadet, a female Novan, in 2151
The term "Novan" was used to describe describe the group of Human colonists who settled the planet Terra Nova and their descendants. The term was applied to these colonists in much the same way the term Martian was applied to those living on Mars. The Terra Nova colony was the first Human colony outside the Sol system, founded in 2078 after a nine-year flight from Earth. The Novans were successful in establishing a fully-functioning community on a world in deep space so a second ship of colonists headed to Terra Nova was planned.
The Novans were not interested in sharing their home they had struggled to build. Led by a man named Mark Logan, the situation with Earth became severely strained, with Logan transmitting threats of violence upon any ships that would arrive in orbit of his planet. This was the last message received from Novans. Earth lost contact with them, and never launched a ship to investigate because of limited resources. The fate of the Novans remained a mystery.
In 2151, the Earth starship Enterprise visited Terra Nova to discover the whereabouts of the apparently missing colony. They discovered the irradiated remains of the colony, and it was determined that the colony had been destroyed by an asteroid strike, which had scattered radioactive debris over the northern hemisphere. The Novans that survived the asteroid strike took refuge in underground caverns in order to avoid the radiation on the surface. They believed that Earth had attacked them because they weren't willing to share their home. This belief was passed on to the next generations. The Novans, who did not believe that they were related to the Terrans, attacked the away team.
Eventually the Enterprise crew was able to gain the trust of the Novans, convincing them that Earth was not responsible for destroying the original colony. As the underground water supply the Novans used to survive had slowly become contaminated by the surface radiation, the Novan population was eventually relocated to a continent on the southern hemisphere that was unaffected by the fallout from the asteroid strike. (ENT: "Terra Nova")