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One Finger Creating a Masterpiece
The Vanuatu men have travelled across the ocean to attend the annual Sandroing (sand drawing) Festival each year since 2005. Art is used as the medium for a gathering, for communicating, for expressing themselves. In the northern, tropical islands of Vanuatu, each year the Festival occurs at a different location.
For the northern island artists of Torba Province this can prove to be a deep disappointment as it hinders their involvement. Their large canoes can’t make the journey across the wide expanses of ocean, when the Festival is held to the south.
The close historical link between sand drawings and inter-island canoe voyaging is recognized as part of the Festival.
Sand drawing became a form of communication with the different languages. An extensive network of relationships developed between different language groups. Songs, stories and rituals were spread and retold.
In creating a sand drawing a finger must work in a precise way on the fresh sand to create the geometric patterns. Each drawing conveys extensive knowledge about local history, rituals and cosmologies, kinship systems, natural phenomena and farming matters.
UNESCO in 2003 proclaimed Vanuatu Sand Drawing a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”. UNESCO/Japan Funds-In-Trust For the Preservation and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage began in 2004 to fund the program to safeguard Vanuatu’s sand drawing.
A steady hand, a strong understanding of the graphic patterns and motifs, and a deep understanding of their significance are required by the skilled artists. Spectators require the sand drawers to interpret the drawings for them.
Other traditions such as dances, games, magic shows, story-telling, string figures and weaving demonstrations are also part of the Sandroing Festival.
Whilst going forward into the 21st century, the Vanuatu peoples’ resolve to maintain their traditions has been strengthened by the UNESCO acknowledgment of the sand drawing tradition.
As a Lesser Developed Country of the South Pacific, Vanuatu recognizes the need for education of the next generation if the country is to move forward into the 21st century.In the no-cash-economies of the isolated villages live most of the people. The government does not have the finances either to provide a free education, it quietly admitted late in 2007.
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