LAND AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OUR LAND OUR LIFE

1. LAND AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLESOUR LAND OUR LIFE Beliefs/Education Definition: Indigenous Peoples:Sovereignty and Key Role of Beliefs All of these Elements UNENCLOSED Land Languages Work/Food Cultures Communities

2. LAND AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLESOUR LAND OUR LIFELand is Life: Land is life for a people who are dependent on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods and whose identity, kinship structure, language, ancestral beings and spiritual self is to a large degree founded on land. As the first Minister for Lands in Vanuatu, Sethy Regenvanu, stated famously; • Land to ni-Vanuatu is what a mother is to a baby. It is with land that he defines his identity and it is with land that he maintains his spiritual strength. • Land under the traditional tenure provides more than what a mother gives us in life.

3. LAND AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLESOUR LAND, OUR LIFE • Land is spiritual • Cement and create relationships • Binds families, clans and tribes together • Get everything that the need in life • It is the people’s whole being • Land is inclusive, it is our land vs my land • Land is the biggest employer in Melanesia and provide security from hunger and homelessness. • Land our only safety net

4. De-customization And monetization of Land in Vanuatu and Melanesia • Land in Vanuatu and Melanesia initially had started to have momentary value added when: • Traders came to set up plantations • Missionaries, churches • Education • Modern development • Financial institutions and companies

5. De-customization And monetization of Land in Vanuatu and Melanesia • Customary land tenure in Vanuatu and Melanesia is a ‘obstacle to Development’ (land registration is the way forward) • “Ausaid and NZaid have agreed to to provide assistance to the country’s land sector” to free up land under the customary land tenure for development purposes • Assist to ‘establish a land registry and information' it is taking away the land from the customary tenure enclosed it and place its records in the office • Assist the government to establish and effective lease system and development planning • Provide foreign advisors and consultants to draw up the country’s land road map.

6. De-customization And monetization of Land in Vanuatu and Melanesia • Trade Liberalization provide an open door to development and investors • Promote the neo-liberal economy • fantasy • Corrupt land dealings by individuals and investors • Weak land monitoring system enhances the corrupt dealings to continue unabated. • Land in Vanuatu and Melanesia is gradually individualized. • Under the adopted laws the land is ENCLOSED and parceled for individuals

7. De-customization And monetization of Land in Vanuatu and Melanesia • Free- up land for development • Land registration for development and security • Land to be under the power of the state and the companies • Promote developments that disturbs traditional economies

8. LAND AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES GRAON HEMI LAEF BLONG YUMI OUR LAND OUR LIFE Recognition of the important relationships that ni-Vanuatu landowners have to their land must somehow be reconciled with the extensive land sales that are occurring across coastal estates on many of the islands of Vanuatu. (refer to map- 1996) In 2008 it was estimated that approximately 50 per cent of coastal Efate was under lease (Fingelton, Naupa and Ballard 2008). I imagine this is now an underestimate of current leasing on Efate. The majority of these leases are held by foreigners and when leases over land are created ni-Vanuatu often illegally lose access to gardens, and coastal estates where leases are located (Farran 2010: 398). Land is, of course, an economic resource and a site of political power. Selling land is often the only way that landowners can generate the often substantial cash funds needed to pay for schooling, bride prices and other customary obligations, upgrade housing and infrastructure and access other material goods. Without alternative livelihood or ‘development’ opportunities that offer similar cash payments to landowners it is difficult to maintain the ideological argument that land should not be sold. However, it must also be understood that selling land is possibly the single most culturally transformative act that landowners can undertake. When land is sold to outsiders, things will change. This then is a foundational tension in Vanuatu. The importance of place to identity versus the commodified value of land. It is this tension, in all its complexity, that is the subject of this brief paper today.

9. Traditional Economy and Customary land tenure • Strengthen relationship between families clans and tribes • Land dispute resolutions that ensures that everyone has a place to live (win/win) • More than 80% of Vanuatu(2007 Agriculture census) and 63.9% of population of the Pacific (World Bank 2009) survive on traditional economy (subsistence economy) • Traditional land is the basis for the resilience to the global economy • The people have the power and control over their own lives • everything that is taken from the land is free and the customary tenure is flexible • Independence and freedom from the monetary system

10. Who has the answers? The consultants or the people • Will the Pacific Islanders and their indigenous peoples become the nest helpless victims of corporate victims of globalization? • OR • Will we use our customary power to help bring true spirituality, true civilization and true Development to the world that has sovereign power • There are thousands of answers that each indigenous people can give us right across the pacific.

11. Vanuatu’s or our Alternative • Customary land tenure and the traditional economy are our only way forward in Melanesia in particular Vanuatu.(only resource is land) • Allow for Melanesians to fully participate in and drive the process and control the outcomes • Land is the biggest employer in Melanesia and provide security from hunger and homelessness. • With the fragile island states environment land reforms imposed on us will have adverse consequences. • Tankyu tumas long harim blong yu.