Mission sites as indigenous heritage in southern Vanuatu

Abstract

Christian missions are often characterized as a physical expression of Western colonial power, institutions that were resisted by indigenous people in various ways. In Vanuatu, while there was indeed dramatic resistance to mission incursion, the success of Christianity in many places (for not everyone converted) developed from a series of complex entanglements between indigenous Melanesians and Christian missionaries. This is apparent in oral traditions and in the physical remains relating to mission encounters. Indigenous ni-Vanuatu see the archaeological remains of mission sites as an integral part of their heritage, rather than as relics of a foreign colonial past. This tendency relates to other aspects of missionary heritage as well, including museum collections and sacred texts. The historical archaeology of missions in Vanuatu and beyond can be best understood through the lens of colonial entanglement, destabilizing categorical oppositions such as colonizer-colonized, foreign-indigenous, and power-resistance.

An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu

“…This was part of the wider process of indigenising Christianity in the New Hebrides (Flexner and Spriggs 2015). Mission houses, once showcases of civilisation, became increasingly filled with indigenous things.…”

“…Mission sites, rather than being part of foreign, colonial 'waet man' (white man) history, are integrated into the pantheon of traditional kastom sites, just as Christianity is integrated into what it means to be ni-Vanuatu today (see also Flexner and Spriggs 2015).…”

“…However, the significant fact is that Christian conversion in no way undermines the extent to which ni-Vanuatu can be considered indigenous. Rather, Christianity and kastom do and did go hand-in-hand for Melanesian people who converted, and their descendants who largely continue to practice Christianity today (Flexner and Spriggs 2015). This project is a result of indigenous interest in Christian archaeological sites on Tanna and Erromango, which are not seen as separate from any other category of kastom places.…”

“…Like so many missionary sites, G. Gordon House has been incorporated into the local pantheon of customary sacred places (Flexner and Spriggs 2015), and is periodically visited as such. Apparently some of the surface artefacts were removed and thrown over the cliff during cleaning of the site, or taken as souvenirs by local people.…”

“…Two more features are worth noting, as they relate to more recent integration of mission heritage and kastom in the 20th century (Flexner and Spriggs 2015). The bell from the Watts' church at Port Resolution has been placed in a tree in one of the central areas of the current village.…”