The President of Vanuatu’s Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs has urged Prime Minister Jotham Napat to ensure any matters relating to the newly-restored chiefly house be discussed in the ‘nakamal’ first, before making their way to parliament.
Vanuatu celebrated the restoration of the national nakamal this month with ceremony and speeches.
“I salute the Government and every chief throughout the country and youths, and all donor partners, for all your support towards the building of this magnificent nakamal from the ashes,” Chief Mehrimba Dangdang Paul Robert Ravun said at the opening. The previous structure burnt in a mysterious fire in 2023.
A sacred fire was lit and tended for 20 days prior to the opening. Traditional tamtam (drums) with sacred beats sounded for a week. Chief Dangdang danced daily to the beats to keep the spirit alive, to link the chiefs of the island councils of the 83 islands and their area councils, and to ask for their safe passage to the opening ceremony in Port Vila.
Referring to himself as the “father of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet and Parliament”, Chief Dangdang saluted the Prime Minister with the following words: “For your respect for your father, today onward, your father will stand with you to together develop this nation and take our children forward into the ocean of independence.”
Chief Dangdang agreed to work with government, and appealed to the Prime Minister to also revisit the Constitution to ensure that matters of nakamal be approved and discussed first in the nakamal, before being passed into law by parliament. This appeal met with loud applause.
Before traditional presentations of long yams and a giant pig to the Prime Minister, Ministry of Justice Director General, Arthur Faerua said the Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs is an ‘ocean going ship’ that has been sailing the seas since long before the Christian pioneers.
The reference to the custom economy and trade which linked the islands of Vanuatu with New Caledonia and beyond, was represented by thousands of taros (dalo), yams, bananas, manioc, dry coconuts and mats seen in the nakamal during the opening.
Those foods were presented to the Prime Minister, who in turn shared them with the hundreds of people who attended the ceremony, some from as far as Santo. The food was so plentiful that even the next day, there were bundles of bananas and trunks of manioc and kava remaining at the ‘nasara’ (ceremonial ground) because everyone had left for home with full stomachs and hands.
As for Chief Mehrimba Dangdang’s call for constitutional change to allow for nakamal matters to be discussed in the ceremonial house first, Prime Minister Napat agreed this is something they would explore.
