Culture of Vanuatu

In various regions, aerophones, such as whistles or bamboo flutes, are used to be played; membranophones and chordophone were also found in some areas, but have fallen into disuse during colonial times.

Women's rights activist Grace Mera Molisa, who died in 2002, achieved international notability as a very descriptive poet.

Sand drawing from Vanuatu is an art form recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

One of the most important contemporary artists of Vanuatu is Aloi Pilioko who created the impressive colourful relief on the post office in Port Vila.

Bislama is a pidgin language, and now a creole in urban areas, which essentially combines a typically Melanesian grammar with a mostly English vocabulary.

[4] Missionaries often called this pre-Christian religion “pagan” or “heathen” in English, and as “times of darkness” in the country's local languages,[5][6]: 207  or in Bislama (taem blong tudak).

[7]: 86  [8]: 140 The traditional religion, sometimes considered a form of animism, has been described by various authors, notably the Anglican missionary and anthropologist Robert Codrington in his famous 1891 monograph The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore (1891).

[6] Concepts central to the traditional religion include mana,[12][13] tabu,[14] and the worship of ancestral spirits (tamate).

[4][6][10][11] Named deities or mythological figures included Qat and Qasavara in the Banks Is, Tagaro on Ambae, Lisepsep across the archipelago.

[15] Villagers of the Yaohnanen tribe believed in an ancient story about the pale-skinned son of a mountain spirit venturing across the seas to look for a powerful woman to marry.

Prince Philip, having visited the island with his new wife Queen Elizabeth, fit the description exactly and is therefore revered and even held as a god around the isle of Tanna.