Vanuatu

Lore & Background

Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island, Espíritu Santo, in 1606. Queirós claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies and named it La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo. In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago, and in 1906, they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides – through an Anglo-French condominium. In the 1970s, an independence movement arose, and the Republic of Vanuatu was founded in 1980. Since its independence, the country has become a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and the Pacific Islands Forum.

In Their Own Story

The salt spray clung to the air as the morning sun broke over the Pacific, illuminating the jagged silhouette of Mount Yasur. On the black sand beach of Tanna, the rhythmic thud of drums echoed from the village, signaling the start of a ceremony that had continued for centuries. A local elder adjusted his woven sash, watching the smoke rise from the volcano's crater, a constant reminder of the earth's living power. Nearby, children played in the turquoise shallows, their laughter mingling with the distant call of a frigatebird. Here, time moved to the pulse of the ocean and the rhythm of the drums, untouched by the rush of the modern world.

Reader's Guide

Vanuatu's name was adopted upon independence in July 1980, replacing the name New Hebrides. Vanuatu is derived from the word vanua, meaning 'land' or 'home' in several Austronesian languages, and the word tu, meaning 'to stand' or 'remain'. According to the country's first prime minister Walter Lini, the name was intended to connote 'a country that has stood alone and will continue to stand alone'. There was historically no indigenous name for the archipelago as a whole. The name New Hebrides was given by British explorer James Cook in 1774 in honour of the Hebrides archipelago of Scotland. The first locally coined name for the New Hebrides was Vanuaaku (also spelled Vanua'aku or Vanua-Aku), adopted in 1977 by the pro-independence New Hebrides National Party. In February 1980, the New Hebrides Representative Assembly formally voted to adopt Vanuatu as the country's name on independence.

Did You Know?

• The first Europeans to visit Vanuatu arrived in 1606, not the late 17th century.
• Vanuatu's name means 'land that stands alone' in several Austronesian languages.
• The archipelago was jointly managed by France and the United Kingdom as the New Hebrides from 1906 until independence in 1980.