Kago, Kastom and Kalja: The Study of Indigenous Movements in Melanesia Today

Marcellin Abong is the Director of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and of the Vanuatu National Cultural Council. He was trained at the University Paris-I-Sorbonne-Panthéon (Master degree in Ethno-Archeology) and at the University Paris-VI-Pierre et Marie-Curie (Fundamental Xylologie). He has published a book,La pirogue du dark bush: apercus critiques sur l’histoire du Nagriamel (Port-Vila, VKS publications); he has also co-edited two other books,Oceanic Ancestors/Ancêtres Océaniens (Paris, Somogy Editions d’Arts) and101 mots pour comprendre le Vanuatu (Nouméa, editions du GRHOC). In 2008, he received a chiefly title from his community in Lamap (south Malekula), “Gulgul Maingi Taridumlegh Baraghabat”, which refers to the morning star and symbolize hope.

Marc Tabani is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and affiliated to the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l’Océanie (CREDO) and to the Vanuatu Cultural Centre as Honorary Curator. He has conducted research in many islands of Vanuatu since 20 years. His main topics have been politics of identity and tradition, cultural change, millenarianism. Many of his writings have focused on ni-vanuatu indigenous movements, especially the Nagriamel and the John Frum movements. After being based since over three years in Vanuatu he has extend his researches to such topics like commodification and commercialization of cultures, globalization and national politics, monetarization of domestic modes of production based economies. Among his different achievements in project managements, he became the cofounder with Marcellin Abong and Jacob Kapere of the TAFEA Kaljoral Senta. This branch of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre is located in Tanna and focused its cultural and artistic activities on the societies of the southern province of Vanuatu (islands of Tanna, Aneytium, Futuna, Eromango, Aniwa). Marc Tabani has published several articles in french and English and edited two volumes in French (2002, Les pouvoirs de la coutume à Vanuatu: traditionalisme et édification nationale and 2008, Une pirogue pour le paradis: le culte de John Frum à Tanna). He is also editor and co-author of the french version of Histri blong yumi: an history of Vanuatu in four volumes (2010-1012) and editor of a special issue of the Journal de la Société des Océanistes dedicated to the 30 years of Vanuatu’s independence (2011).