Vanuatu Past and Present

Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sun 30 Sep 2018 00:47
There are many, varied and wonderful areas to cruise in the world. We still have warm memories of Greece and tying up to tiny quaysides with just a few brilliant white houses gleaming in the intense light, the smell of hot rock and soil, groves of olive trees and a harbour side taverna serving the perfect food infused with the sun, oil and produce of the area. The Caribbean; West coast of Sweden; English south coast; Brittany; Croatia. There are countless others that we would like to visit but probably never will.  Travel by sea gives a perspective to coastlines that will be familiar to mariners through the ages but less so from a landward viewpoint. You can only really appreciate a harbour, its aspect, its layout, its history from a seaward vantage.
In the Pacific the largely unchanging coastal perspective, before the arrival of the early western explorers, was passed down through countless generations of islanders by experience and word of mouth. From the time of Cook, Vancouver and Bligh it was a recorded perspective in the form of exquisite charts, engravings and maps that opened up the area to wider exploration and exploitation. The Pacific soon became accessible to adventurous romantics like Lord Byron, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville and more recently, Thor Heyerdahl who were able to give a breathtakingly eloquent and evocative glimpse of life that missionary zeal was striving to change forever.
For the most part, and Tahiti is a good example, you have to use your imagination to try and understand the vistas that were experienced, written about and sketched by the early explorers. Often they have been altered by subsequent development and land management but the basic geological and geographical framework remains. Reading the old accounts is thrilling when you can relate your own experience to what is being described. 
Here in Vanuatu we have for the first time an experience that may not be very different to that of our forbears. Cook explored these Islands and for some reason named them the New Hebrides. By the time he arrived he was at a loss for original names to give to all the islands and features he came across and so I suppose a reminder of any other rugged island would suffice. The islands of Vanuatu are formed from still active volcanic forces and are, as a result, mountainous, steeply sloping and through aspect and location, very wet (which they have in common with the Hebrides of course). This wet climate gives rise to lush rainforest while the coastal and drier areas are a prime location for fruit bearing trees and vegetables such as coconut, mango, breadfruit, yam, cassava and tarrow. Buildings are mostly traditional and usually set within the trees for shelter from wind and sun. The forest is largely intact and therefore what we are seeing as we enter our anchorages may not be very different from what Cook was seeing all those years ago.
Dugout canoes are still paddled across your vista but you also come across fibreglass workboats with an outboard motor that bring you back into the 21st century. The anchorages are usually wonderful with a sand or mud bottom (good holding with no chain grinding on or getting wrapped around coral) and well sheltered from the south easterly prevailing trade winds. You would need to select your anchorage carefully faced with strong westerly wind but there are some described as cyclone shelters. You can daysail around each island and there may be no more than an overnight passage between them. In short this is the perfect cruising area for those looking for somewhere to feel away from it all and little touched by the pressures of modern development.
It is only when you go ashore the differences from Cook’s experience become more apparent. For a start you are unlikely to be eaten. Not that you were ever certain to be of course. Reports of cannibalism in the South Pacific were greatly exaggerated for effect by the missionaries and early explorers and recorded examples of killings and cannibalism involving westerners were usually the result of extreme provocation or cultural misunderstanding, like the missionary John Williams on Erromango and even James Cook himself. There were examples of westerners living perfectly happily with tribal communities but also evidence of fighting and cannibalism linked to inter tribal rivaly, the ending of which might fairly be attributed to the missionary influence as well as the imposition of western laws. One village chief told us that when Vanuatu gained independence from the Anglo French administration (yes, there really was such a thing!) in 1980 his whole village fled into the mountains as they thought neighbouring villagers would come and kill them! He laughs about it now but it may be reflective of how insular tribal communities were. There are 115 different languages in Vanuatu, with only Bislama - a creole language with English - spoken by all. English and French are the official languages taught in school. I must also acknowledge that Melville’s experience, eloquent and persuasive as it is, may include a larger element of research, second hand experience and imagination than you might infer from the text.
Another enduring missionary impact, apart from religion, is the adoption by Vanuatuan women of the missionary dress. The dress - full, straight, high neckline, puff shouldered with frills and bows and unflatteringly shapeless - can be seen throughout the South Pacific. In Tahiti it is a tradition to wear it when performing in gospel choirs. In Vanuatu it may be worn daily, particularly by older women, and always for church and other formal occasions. Otherwise it is shorts (men), skirts and tee shirts.
Every village on every island we have visited has at least one church, sometimes two or three for different denominations. Prayers are said before meals and churchgoing may be daily. Throughout the South Pacific singing in church - sonorous , harmonious, and enthusiastic - is a common feature. However, quite why communities on the other side of the world (or anywhere else in the world for that matter) would so readily adopt a god invented for tribes of displaced, landless and resentful shepherds in the Middle East three thousand years ago is beyond my comprehension but clearly Vanuatuans are open to the concept of worshiping some form of deity. On Tanna it was, in one village, the god that could be summoned on the radio to supply cargo by sea or air - the “Cargo Cult”, subject of a documentary by David Attenborough early on in his career. In another it was worship of Prince Philip. How wonderful is that?! Prince Charles visited Vanuatu last year - maybe he will take over when his father’s time is up.  Sadly we weren’t able to visit either village but the cargo culters seem to have fun - singing and dancing throughout the night every Friday.
It would also seem that old habits die hard. Vanuatuans believe they are descended from spirit ancestors as commemorated by the Rom dance on Ambrym. There is an ongoing belief in spirits, ghosts, devils and magic. We have come across albino children in Vanuatu and were told by Timo, a Bulgarian linguist recording local languages for his PhD, that a devil was said to live in a large tree (ironically right behind the church) that occasionally came into the village and had sex with a woman who would then give birth to an albino child. Annie is better placed to write about this from a medical perspective but we found it shocking that this level of superstition should affect peoples lives so profoundly. Each village has a chief and there may be a head chief for several villages. Chiefly titles are inherited by the eldest son (when there is one) or a nephew and there are sacred areas where only the chiefs and their families may go and where the chiefs will be buried. At least their bodies will, their heads being removed and stored along with those of their ancestors. There is a spiritual aspect to all this and various rites and secret ceremonies. For example, if there is a poor yam harvest one year the chief may be asked to undertake a ritual to ensure a good harvest the following year. He talks to the yam plants and must then eat the first ripe fruit and pronounce when the remaining yam should be harvested.  Maybe their faith in God does have a degree of pragmatism and I would have thought talking to your plants was more likely to be effective than praying for them. We were told all this by Frederick, the senior chief of the villages around our anchorage at Metenovor Bay. Frederick is an interesting, thoughtful and intelligent man and a joy to talk to. He professes to be Christian but seems happy also to go along with his pagan role as part of his chiefly duties. Unfortunately his English is not quite up to explaining all the subtleties of his rites, even if the secrecy would allow him to. If we make it back to Vanuatu next year he will show us his sacred area.
“Taboo” is still significant. The word seems to be widely used as a concept of what one may not do and it is used in the context of social hierarchies (between men and women, higher and lower social orders) as well as more generally. For example there may be paths where it is taboo for women to walk and kava drinking areas for men also taboo to women. It is “taboo” to fish within a designated conservation area. We haven’t heard that it is used in the context of a curse.
There is still a strong sense of family, community and sharing. In Cook’s time there was little sense of personal possession and something as intriguing and wonderful as his sextant was to be shared around. Throughout the South Pacific the sailors had to guard their possessions carefully and when in Tahiti Cook’s sextant was “stolen” he was incensed (one can understand the magnitude of his loss) but cutting off the ears of the miscreants on its return seems a bit harsh. Today we have never felt less likely to be robbed or accosted. I recently left my sandals on the beach and within 10 minutes they had been delivered to Vega by dugout canoe. That is not to say there isn’t any crime or disputes within communities. However, hospitality requires present giving, usually in the form of fruit or vegetables or even a meal. We reciprocate with fishing line, lures, writing books and crayons, sweets, rice and tinned food. To Annie’s great joy we have given away all the remaining tins of corned beef. I have managed to eat the baked beans before they went also.