We woke up to the beautiful views arriving into Port Vila, Vanuatu. The Captain had said the night before that we would only be ble to stop if putting the tender boats was safe. There are 2 big cyclones out here at the moment. We watched as we sailed into the port and watched as the tender boats were loaded into a calm sea. Yes! We would be going onto the shore.
Last time we came to Port Vila it was stressful we were super delayed getting off and everyone was grumpy and there was not a carnival staff member anywhere. This is one of the reasons we booked through Royal Carribean again to see if it would be better. It was so much better we just wandered off the ship and onto a small tender boat and within minutes we were on solid land in Port Vila,
We had booked a tour from the ship for the day because after much research it was the only way to do the one thing I really wanted to do in Port Vila which is see the Sand art. It is listed under UNESCO as a Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Directly from UNESCO they say
“Vanuatu archipelago has preserved a unique and complex tradition of sand drawing. This multifunctional “writing” is more than an indigenous artistic expression and it occurs in a wide range of ritual, contemplative and communicative contexts. The drawings are produced directly on the ground, in sand, volcanic ash or clay. Using one finger, the drawer traces a continuous meandering line on an imagined grid to produce a graceful, often symmetrical, composition of geometric patterns”
There are only a handful of people left that can do this art form and even less that will do it in front of tourists. I knew that Edgar works at Vaunatu Musueum and only does this once a day for tour groups. So we booked a very expensive shore excursion to go see this.
We were picked up in a mini van by our Guide for the day Eddie. Eddie was the best. He was so funny and full of information about Vanuatu.
He explained that the name Vanuatu means Our Land Forever in the local dialects. He gave us the history of land ownership in Vanuatu. Before being called Vaunatu it was called New Hebrides before this but changed to Vanuatu when it gained its independence in 1980.
There are 5 active volcanoes in Vaunatu and they are situated around the ring of fire. There are 83 habitated islands in Vaunatu and it has a population of about 350000. There are 115 langugaes spoken in Vanuatu with the main 3 being Bislama, French and English.
We arrived at the Museum and were greeted by Edgar and asked to sit down for a cultural show. Edgsar started the show by playing a local flute. He walked around playing while we were all seated.
After playing he explained that he originated from the northern Pentecost Island in Vanuatu and explained the layout of the islands and voclanoes in Vanutau. He spoke of the importance of sound in Vanuatu Kastom (culture) and how all beings are important particularly the cicada. He spoke about rebirth and what the locals believe. Anthony and I both said we could have listened to him forever he was so interesting and calm.
After explaining so much about Vanuatu culture I can not write it all here Edgar moved on to the sand art. He exaplined that it is a temporary art form where the story is as important as the image, and often, the art is meant to be erased to maintain its sacred nature. While he drew he told a story of Birdboating which is actually a historical event
“Blackbirding” in Vanuatu (1847–1901) refers to the forced recruitment or kidnapping of roughly 62,000 Pacific Islanders, many from Tanna Island, by sailors for forced labor on Australian sugar plantations. Islanders were coerced onto boats, sometimes through deceptive trade or at gunpoint, with many never returning to their families.
They way the story was told was more like a fairytale you would tell kids. E.g. Don’t enter someones house and eat their food (Goldilocks). It was absolutley mesmerising and I will tell you not one person in that tour group made a noise.
We were so forunate to see this in action. Edgar holds so much cultural weight on his shoulders and it is appreaciated that he is willing to share this with tourists. Edgar has been training his grandson Ed to carry on the sand art and Edgar wanted him to practise in front of a group so he dragged him over to do a second sand art for us. Ed drew while Edgar told the story. This one was explaining what happends when 2 tribes (chiefs) meet together.
Edgar finished explaining the Vanuatu flag and what all the different parts meant.
Red: Represents the blood that unites humanity.
Green: Symbolizes the richness of the islands.
Black: Represents the Melanesian people of Vanuatu.
A golden Y-shape outlined in black, symbolizing the shape of the islands and Christianity.
Emblem is a boar’s tusk encircling two crossed namele cycad fronds, representing peace and prosperity.
Then Edgar played his last instrument which was a bamboo shaker. He did a couple of peices on it and then said he would do the Australian NAtional Anthem as we were mostly Australians there. I ony managed to film a tiny bit of it.
We were so lucky to get time to sit and listen to Edgar. We gained such a better understanding of Vanuatu culture. We were given some time to have a look around the museum before we headed to our next stop.
Eddie took us to the Vanuatu War Memorial which has a great view over the bay. Eddie also made a hilarious joke about Vanuatus cannibal past by telling us that when they got invaded they finally tasted white meat. Which they never realised was more tender and tasty then black meat. As he said this he put his hand on the knee of the guy in front of us.
We headed back into town and went to the Mama Markets which were a huge handicraft market and did a bit of shopping. This was the end of the tour so we headed off on our own for a bit. We found a japanese shop with a new flavour of coolish which was fun.
We ended up speaking to a local and asked him where a good place for local food was. He said the markets have just reopened after the earthquake. We headed down there and got two local meals in a very local shop. It was pretty good.
We headed back to the ship on a tender boat and enjoyed the stunning weather.
When we got back Emmanuael our stewart had made us a towel bear. It was so cute.
We sat on the balcony and watched the tender boats go back and forth and enjoyed the beautiful view of Port Vila.
We had a very nice quiet afternoon and then watched the sun set from our window. The sky was like a rainbow when the sun went down it was unlike anything I have seen. It is so nice to be able to take thee moments just to see nature instead of running around in every day life.
