Pics from the Banks Islands - Part One - Vanua Lava Cultural Festival
Kokamo's Pacifc Meanderings
Tom and Rachel
Sat 25 Sep 2010 00:45
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After our brief stop in
Luganville, we sailed 120 miles north to the Banks Islands, right in the north
of Vanuatu. First stop Vanua Lava Island.
 We anchored in Vureas
Bay for the Cultural Festival held by the local villages.
 A pig inevitably gets
the chop...
 ....Paramount Chief
Godfrey opens the festival...
 ...and four days of
dancing gets underway. Some tell serious stories, with spectacular
headresses...
 ...or disguises to
represent a menacing dead husband (a women's dance) ...
 ...and can be really
scary. While others are pure slap-stick...
 ...complete with
cross-dressing (can any self-respecting show be without
it? ...
 ... and ridiculous
cavorting, to huge laughter from the crowd.
 Then the dancers,
painted up to represent a banded sea-snake, make their way into the arena
from the beach.
The Banks Islands' most
famous dance gets underway:
 The Snake
Dance.
 Meanwhile, behind the
scenes, teams of young men spend everyday preparing vast quantities of
kava. Up here it is chopped small, and put through a coffee grinder.
None of that unhygienic chewing approach used on Tanna.
 Rounding it off
with some moves to the local string band in the evening..
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