Today; in Ambae, kastom is being revived in many such ways. The effect of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre programmes has been to renew people’s interest in kastom. The Women’s Culture Project programme, which Lissant Bolton and I implemented in Ambae in 1991-92 and have since introduced to other islands, has helped legitimate the things women do as true kastom, whereas previously it was regarded as men’s business. This has increased the self-esteem and self-confidence of women and in Ambae has encouraged them to revive styles of mats which they had stopped making. Ambae people now recognise the need to use more mats in ceremonies, instead of money, and this in turn enhances the reputation and self-respect of women.
In the future, I think there will be more new ways to teach kastom to our young people. However, it is hard to know what
the effect of the new churches will be. Many of the new denominations are very strongly opposed to kastom and will try to defeat these attempts to stimulate it if they come to Ambae. If there is no opposition from the churches, kastom will continue to be revived, even though it will continue to change. People are changing kastom in order to try to make it relevant to life today. It has to fit in with church, government, education and development. The work of the cultural centre is to try to make
sure that kastom remains a strong force in the lives of ni-Vanuatu. We believe that it is a strong foundation of our identity. If we
don’t have kastom, we are nobody – we don’t know where we come from or where we are going.
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