I come from Vanuatu, a group of 80 small islands in the South Pacific, and grew up in Port Vila, the capital city. As a child growing up in an urban center, I knew that having a successful life in the future comes from gaining a good education and a well-paid job. After I graduated from university, I joined a local NGO called the Vanuatu Indigenous Land Defense Desk (VILDD), which gave me my first insight into the value of our land. I also worked on a project for the community’s development and well-being, funded by the Vanuatu National Statistics Office.
Over the years since 2016, I have dedicated myself to working with VILDD and the Melanesian Indigenous land defense desk (MILDA), to promote the significance of the Land and the Ocean. For Melanesian people, and especially in Vanuatu, Land and Ocean are connected with the people. Everything is interconnected and we like to look at things in a holistic way.
With the recent global pandemic and climate change, I have seen again the importance of land being the only safety net for the people. We have worked with communities and regional partners on the safeguarding of our natural resources, defending them from huge companies and industries that only want to make money out of our livelihood. For us, it is not about making money from it, but making sure that our future generations will benefit from these resources as well. We are just borrowing what belongs to our children’s children.
Around 80% of the population in Vanuatu depends entirely on the resources from the land and the ocean for their livelihood and well-being. The land and the ocean remain the source of income and for food and nutrition security for the indigenous people. They are the primary safety net in times of crises like the covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, indigenous knowledge to mitigate and adapt to climate change becomes the way forward for people to thrive during these uncertain times.
When people have free access to the land and the sea, the knowledge and skills to be productive on these resources, they are rich. For Vanuatu, 92% of the population living in rural areas have free access to customary indigenous lands, 100% of forest resources and 79% of marine resources. Each individual ni-Vanuatu who freely accesses these fundamental natural resources signals the fact that they know their roots and their cultural identity including their language. Hence, they are regarded as living lives of well-being.
Therefore, I am reinstating my stand to continue to advocate and to educate the younger generations of Vanuatu. to revisit their past, to reuse their traditional knowledge and skills, and to embrace the strength of their older folks, in order to move forward into the future successfully and sustainably, being one with their natural environment. spiritually, mentally, physically and socially. The land is the powerhouse that serves as a plate for the past, present and future. Hence, “Land is Life ”(Graon hemi Laef!).
Vanuatu 