Ni‐Vanuatu Research and Researchers

Abstract

The Vanuatu Cultural Centre has played a central role, both in supporting and directing expatriate research in Vanuatu, and in developing a group of ni‐Vanuatu researchers, known as fieldworkers. At annual workshops, the fieldworkers are trained in basic linguistic and anthropological documentation techniques, and discuss ways to maintain and revive local practice in their own areas. The fieldworkers also advise and assist expatriate researchers. This paper outlines the work of the Cultural Centre and the work of ni‐Vanuatu researchers, focusing on the fieldworkers.

Perceptions of the value of traditional ecological knowledge to formal school curricula: opportunities and challenges from Malekula Island, Vanuatu

“…In response, the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VCC) iv runs a number of programs aimed at the maintenance and revitalisation of kastom and vernacular language. Two of these are of note here: the fieldworker program, which has been supporting volunteer local researchers to record their culture and language for over 30 years [ 70 ]; and a recent program that facilitates the teaching of TEK in the science curriculum by producing curriculum units for years 1 to 10 [ 71 , 72 ].…”

Le nouveau climat des expéditions naturalistes au sud

“…2. Pour retracer l'histoire de cette politique, nous avons utilisé deux articles : Bolton (1999) et Tryon (1999). conservateur du Centre culturel de 1977 à 1990, alors jeune anthropologue britannique, soutiendra cette initiative et fera diffuser ces enregistrements à la radio dans le but de participer à la préservation des « traditions culturelles ».…”

Editors’ Introduction

“…2), a significant hiatus separates those nineteenthand twentieth-century pioneers from the research that followed World War Two. It is through the substantial combined efforts of specific individuals during this pre-Independence period that the current collaborative ethos most clearly emerged (see Bolton 1999;Tryon 1999). That many of these passionate and untiring pre-Independence researchers of Vanuatu language, history and culture are now household names in Vanuatu-whether across Vanuatu as a whole or in the immediate regions in which they worked-is testament to the high esteem in which their efforts are held.…”