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World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Vanuatu : Overview

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Environment

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Vanuatu, known until independence in 1980 as the New Hebrides, is part of Melanesia, although the small southern island of Futuna is to some extent a Polynesian outlier. There are as many as seventy populated islands and geographical fragmentation is extreme. Most islands are of volcanic origin and there are several active volcanoes.

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Peoples

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Main languages: Melanesian (about 105 languages), Bislama, French, English

Main religions: Christianity (various), animism

The great majority of the population are Melanesian. Minority groups include Wallisians and Futunans and i-Kiribati.

For its population size, it has a greater linguistic diversity than any other country in the world. The constitution declares the national language to be Bislama (a pidgin English), with the official languages also including English and French. Diversity is manifest in geographical, cultural and linguistic divisions.

There are some recent migrant populations from other Pacific island states. During the condominium years, Wallisians and Futunans migrated to Vanuatu to take up plantation employment and their population was around 1,000 at the time of independence. Since then the number has declined because of the difficulty of obtaining work permits. From the early 1960s there was also migration of Gilbertese (i-Kiribati) and there were several hundred there in the 1980s. Like Wallisians and Futunans, they have experienced considerable difficulty in obtaining work permits and Vanuatu citizenship, despite having renounced Kiribati citizenship and having been in Vanuatu for several decades. In both cases however there are no longer distinct communities.

The majority of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture and some fishing, but tourism has become significant. A tax haven is also important despite external pressures for its closure. There is some hope of future minerals developments. In 2006 Vanuatu was declared the happiest state on earth by the New Economics Foundation in a Happy Planet Index (HPI) that listed countries according to ecological footprint, life expectancy and life satisfaction.

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History

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Contemporary political divisions were shaped during the colonial years, when there were two separate colonial administrations, British and French, governing the condominium (sometimes locally referred to as 'pandemonium') alongside mission-provided education.

Gaining independence was unusually complicated as the British wished to leave but France sought to stay. There was a secessionist, anti-independence movement centred on Santo in the northern group of islands, that declared an independent state of Vemarana in 1980; the rebellion was ended by troops from Papua New Guinea.

Since then there have been intermittent political tensions political tensions, especially at the start of the present century. Tensions were also serious in 1988 when the Prime Minister dismissed Barak Sope from the government. Sope was later charged with treason and given a five year jail sentence while the President, George Sokomanu, was given the same sentence. The charges were eventually reversed but Sope was charged again in 1996 when Minister of Finance. He was finally jailed in 2002 for fraud but later pardoned by the President and has returned to parliament.

Friction between the Police Force and the Vanuatu Mobile Force has brought intermittent local violence – with the seizure of the President in 1996 by VMF members – but Vanuatu has been more stable than its Melanesian neighbours, especially since 2004 with Ham Lini, the brother of the founding Prime Minister, becoming Prime Minister. Corruption has been a political problem and forced the resignation of some politicians, and press freedom was sometimes under threat in the 1990s. However Vanuatu became the only country in the region to be given access to the Millennium Challenge Funds by the United States government in 2006.

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Governance

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Vanuatu was the only country in Oceania that did not achieve independence peacefully. This has resulted in some friction between different regions and although there has been no resurgence of secessionist movements since independence, there are regional religious and political differences, especially between Francophone and Anglophone areas.

Political parties have reflected both the colonial divisions between France and Britain and also religious and linguistic divisions. Although the Vanua'aku Pati, which led the country to independence, had a coherent nationalist policy in the 1980s and made Vanuatu the only Pacific country to join the Non-Aligned Movement, the party has split repeatedly since 1991. Today, parties have no link to political philosophy, hence governments tend to be made up of rapidly fluctuating coalitions without long term goals. In 2005 the government was composed of a coalition of eleven parties. There is a 52 seat parliament, and also an elected president.

The government discourages immigration and expatriates have been deported on several occasions, often for arbitrary reasons. The various minority populations of Vanuatu have thus declined in number since independence.

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Current state of minorities and indigenous peoples

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In spite of the evangelism of Chritian denominations (including the Presbyterian and Catholic churches), there is a strong indigenous movement in Vanuatu. The national Council of Chiefs (Malvatumauri) is relatively powerful, and advises on language and cultural issues, but there have sometimes been disagreements between the Council and Parliament in wider spheres. Through the Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta (Vanuatu Cultural Centre), the country has an active program of linguistic studies, oral history and archival documentation, and land studies to document indigenous cultures. The Centre has programs to promote the indigenous economy, such as the creation of pig banks and the re-creation of traditional mat, shell and tusk money (e.g. lobbying for changes to government policy so people can pay school fees with traditional goods rather than cash).

There are no distinct minorities in Vanuatu. Women play only a minor role in political life but have a more significant role in the public service. Cargo cults – distinctive religious movements, blending elements of Christianity, traditional beliefs and ritual and found in the Pacific – once active, are now less important though the John Frum movement is significant on the island of Tanna and there have been tensions over cult activities.

After independence in 1980, some francophone ni-Vanuatu left for the neighbouring French territory of New Caledonia. Today they live as a small minority in the capital Noumea, and their numbers have swelled through migration of people seeking work. In 2005, at a time of closer economic ties and improved relations between Vanuatu and France, cultural and political leaders from Port Vila travelled to Noumea to commence a process of reconciliation with those who had left the New Hebrides 25 years before.

Topics: Minorities,