Vanuatu Passage
'The search for a national identity'

Contributor:  BlindFreddy

'The Land Eternal' as Vanuatu is known by its people, is a cultural puzzle without a template map. The world's most culturally diverse nation has struggled since its first habitation to find a path to a national identity. Only now after finally gaining independence in 1980, is the opportunity there for its peoples to search out and piece together their national identity so long elusive.

The reasons for a 3500 year delay in its formulation is long and varied. In the beginning it was the competing tribes living on the various 83 islands that was the biggest obstacle. Transportation and language difficulties managed to keep a tribal isolation framework alive for centuries. The arrival of the Europeans followed by the Traders and Blackbirders, the Missionaries and finally by the global ambitions of Britain and France, didn't help in getting the disparate factions to come together. Each successive exploiter served their own purposes, with only ancillary congealing of the cultural differences. And so the ancient Melanesian people's journey to a self awareness is more a trail of missed opportunities and misdirection than anything else. It began, as did many Pacific island nations, with an emigration from the islands of Southeast Asia, in a Eastward search for new lands and new opportunities.

Melanesian populations from New Guinea and Soloman islands are thought to have first sailed to Vanuatu's shores almost 3500 years ago via outrigger canoes. It would be 2000 years before Europeans 'discovered' its idyllic shores and named it 'New Hebrides', as they perused the Pacific waters seeking land acquisitions, religious conversions, indentured labor and trading venues. And another 1500 years before the people of 'New Hebrides', achieved their own independent nation of Vanuatu in 1980, in their final quest for national identity.

The first European visits to the 'Land Eternal' were by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Ferdinand de Quiros in 1606, by the French explorer Louis Antoine Bougainville in 1768 and later by the British explorer Captain James Cook in 1774. Settlement attempts were made by the latter two nations which eventually evolved into a joint British-French management agreement signed in 1906. While many British and French influences have infused Vanuatu with the surface accruements seen by tourists today, the pure cultural traces of the indigenous Melanesian peoples can still be found in the unspoiled corners of this archipelago. Within this Babylon cultural melting pot are found 113 distinctly different languages spoken by its 190,000 residents. As a result, a common language called 'Bislama' has evolved out of necessity, which resembles a version of pigeon English based on phonetic structuring. However this rich ménage of cultures and languages left these Melanesian emigrants extremely vulnerable through out their history to outside forces and influences attempting to format their identity for them.

The explorers were followed in time by the the 'Traders' and the 'Blackbirders'. Many of the Asian-Pacific islands were enroute to the trading venues of China and provided convenient opportunities to stock up on exchange medium, Sandalwood being the prime example. New Hebride's Sandalwood supply drew Traders from all directions, causing strife and ill-will among the competing tribal societies of the archipelago. When resistance was met for harvest of Sandalwood, force was often used. When force failed, disease in the form of Measles, was purposefully introduced to the tribal peoples to weaken their resistance to supplying Sandalwood for the European Tea-Traders.

When the slow-growing Sandalwood stands were depleted, the Traders turned to the tribal people themselves as the commodity to be bartered. Although officially considered indenturement, the conditions of the 3 year contracts and company-store arrangements resulted in de-facto slavery, known as 'Blackbirding'. Tribal people from New Hebrides were transported to Queensland Australia and Fiji to work on the sugar plantations and to New Caladonia to labor in the mines. Sometimes this was done under the guise of deceit and was in fact kidnapping. For forty years, this practice ensued, with less than 20 percent of the endentured returning home. Blackbirding finally came to a dubious end in 1901 with Australia's 'Pacific Islands Labour Bill' ('White Australia Policy'), substituting one injustice for another.

This accumulated ill-will from decades of abuse was ripe for harvest, and its recipients were promptly personified in the form of arriving missionaries eager to harvest their souls. The first missionaries to arrive on the scene in 1840 were promptly introduced to the traditional indigenous cultural practices of the time, and were eaten. Through a deficit human expenditure policy, the missionaries eventually made inroads into tribal society and its culture. Gifts of the spirit were not the only items introduced, as Measles was joined by Smallpox, Influenza, Pneumonia, Scarlet Fever, Mumps and Whooping Cough albeit unintentionally. Catholics and Presbyterians, being the most successful at their trade eventually entreatied their respective supporting countries (France and Britain) to annex control to restrict their spiritual rivals. The result of this dueling attempt at nation building was a joint governing agreement called the 'Condominium' signed in 1906. Needless to say this joint governing of an indigenous people, by crown heads of state a half a world away was a disaster, both for the country, its culture and its people. But the ni-vanuatu appear to be as enduring as their land, and perhaps this benign neglect has served to provide passage through time into today's world without too much cultural erosion.

After a breather from civilization's assault, New Hebrides was at the crossroads of importance during WWII as a staging base for conflicts with the Japanese in the nearby Soloman Islands. At one point there were up to 100 US naval ships berthed in New Hebrides' waters and over 100,000 American troops and personnel stationed in this paradise. One of the more famous assignments was that of the 'Black Sheep', a squadron of misfit airmen who rallied to heroism. 'Bali Hai' would never be the same. The Americans did in short order what the British and French benign neglect failed to do in their 40 years of power...improve the infrastructure. When the war subsided and the Americans offered to sell the improvements for 7 cents on the dollar, the dysfunctional British-French response was "Why should we buy it, you're leaving it anyway". The unexpected reaction by the Americans was to bulldoze much of it into the ocean. Thus was born 'Million Dollar Point' on Espiritu Santo island, now a magnet for visiting divers to explore. The indigenous population was in awe of the enormity of the gear and equipment gathered at New Hebrides by the American Naval visitors, and a side effect of this departing maneuver was the rise of 'cargo cults' with one in particular, called 'John Frum'. In this particular cultural society, the Red Cross is considered their symbol and the American flag is their banner of acknowledgement. The John Frums flourish to this day on the isle of Tanna.

With independence, Vanuatu is attempting to solidify its national identity, splintered for so long by colonial rule. From these past abuses of trust and promises, Vanuatu will finally be able to protect and encourage its indigenous peoples to develop their unique cultural contributions to Vanuatu society. The Vanuatu of today is an emerging nation seeking to develop its undepletable natural resources of tourism and culture. To make that passage thru time and still retain that which will continue to make the ni-vanuatu unique for generations to come. And as the land itself is eternal, so it also seems are the spirit and culture of the ni-vanuatu.