Faces of Vanuatu – Michoutouchkine and Others

by Nancy Knudsen on 24 Oct 2007 Waiting, waiting, waiting for the weather to cross from Vanuatu to Bundaberg in Australia, the crew of Blackwattle start to meet many memorable people – educated, uneducated, simple, sophisticated, always gentle – a cultural diversity which is both inspiring and heartwarming. Here are just a few of them, and these experiences are some of the rewards of becoming a cruising sailor


Lee Tari, Dentist.

Yes you would like to see Dr Hutton? O I see – I thought you would like to see Dr Hutton. No? Oh, you would just like to see a qualified dentist, I see, well I am the dentist, but as you can see I am Ni-Van, Dr Hutton is the Australian dentist, but he is away at the moment. If you are happy to see me please come in. It's rather old fashioned I am afraid, the Doctor, he owns the practice, he is very old fashioned, and he doesn't want any modern things, so we don't have an Xray machine. Please sit down.....my name is Lee – like the Chinese – Lee.Tari.

.... Well you are finished now, just take this prescription to the pharmacy, and then go to see your own dentist in Australia when you get there. Yes that will be good.

How did I start to be a dentist? O you see my mother was the dental nurse for Dr Hutton – he is 83 you see - and when I was even still at school I used to run messages for Dr Hutton, then I started to help in the surgery too, after my mother, and then I went to Australia to qualify as a dentist.

Well, I would like my own practice of course, but I cannot desert Dr Hutton – maybe one day if he retires, then I will have my own practice – that would be wonderful, but we are like family, and Dr Hutton, he has been in Vanuatu so long he is like family, like Ni-Van. No I could not desert him. But it is true I would like an Xray machine.....

Chores, sailing outrigger canoe craftsman.

Yes me make-um these. These good, you see, sail come down, lie flat. Yes yes they are beautiful. You see the stays, they come off and lie down flat so you can carry them home. I live here yes, here in Port Vila – I always make-um these. You know they will float in the water, and they good – hard wood – no problem to take to your country. What is your country? Ah yes, Australia. I have a friend in Australia – he come to visit me soon. In November. He's my friend, and he travels on a ship – he work-em on ship. I make-um bows and arrows too, but no good for you, no take-em in Australia. No take-em Customs.

Look I show you how to do it, you take-em apart like this, you see, here and here and so it lies flat. O you want-em three? No, just one okay.


Sure I have family four boys and just one girl. Wife she good wife, no problem. Boys they good – they go to school, good boys, very good. They can read now, and write-em too. No problem.

Here I put-em here in bag together, sails on top, like this, no problem. My name is Chores. How do I spell that? Well, ah, mmm, Chores, you know Chores. No spell-um Chores, just Chores, Chores.


Karl of the Mele people

Hello, hello, welcome. Come in, come in. Welcome to the Tara Beach Resort! We have every thing here for you, good food, good music, wonderful view of the beach and the reef. Also over there by the beach we have some holiday bures. Yes, we own this resort, ourselves – the Mele people.

We own all this land here by Mele Point. Now we lease the land to foreigners for 75 years, and when you buy the land you can sell the lease, just like freehold land. Every year, you just pay $1000 for upkeep of the area. So now, we are doing our own business. My uncle, he is the Chief of the Mele people, and I am running this resort for him. I have been working in a five star hotel, you know, so I know what to do. We have all kinds of food – lots of Thai dishes if you like. Yes, sure we have beer, and white wine, but only red wine by the glass, that's all.

My uncle will sing for you tonight – he has an excellent voice, yes he will sing some songs for you. Old fashioned songs, very nice. Some Elvis Presley songs, and some love songs, you will like it very much.

No, not very much custom, but it is very new this resort, and every year we build a new bure – the resort and the restaurant they are only 18 months old, so, you see, very new, customers will come soon I think...

Nikolai Michoutouchkine.

Fifty years in the Pacific – yes it is a long time. Forty-six years here in Vanuatu. I was introduced to the South Pacific when I was a young soldier doing military training for my country, France. I was always an artist, practicing my art. Later as a young man I set off penniless on a journey across the Middle East and Asia, spending much time in the journey, practicing my art and having exhibitions as I went. I reached Australia and had an exhibition there in 1957.

An opportunity came for my artist friend Aloi Polioko and I to have an exhibition here. I was much attracted by Vanuatu, because it was bi-lingual, French and English, culturally rich – a meeting of Melanesian and Polynesian culture, and in any case when I left France it was a kind of rejection. I was looking for something else, some other way to live. It's a beautiful lifestyle here. And now of course, we have the gallery and museum along the road on the coast, and we live there too.

Vanuatu? Well, Vanuatu has to find a balance – between the modern world and the retention of their old culture. This is the challenge. The missionaries came and converted these people to Christian, and so much of their culture was left behind. Religion has divided the people here. It's very sad. After the early missionaries, Catholic, Presbyterian, Church of England, later have come the American missionaries – Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelical, many many different sects. And these people are very gregarious – they like something to believe in together. So one part of a family is set against another part because of their new religions. Yes, very divisive these religions – they have done much damage to the people.

What many people forget, of course, is that modern art took much from African art, and that of Asia and the South Pacific as well. So recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the traditional arts here, which we wholeheartedly encourage and support by way of our Michoutouchkine and Polioko Foundation.

As I said, it is a balance here that needs to be found, and is being found, slowly, slowly.. A balance between of the advantages of a modern community without the negatives aspects of the Western world, and the retention of the positive aspects of a traditional lifestyle.

Thank you for visiting my boutique here in the middle of Port Vila, I hope you enjoy to wear the wearable art clothes you have bought. And this shirt you are wearing – you say bought it here more than 20 years ago? - and yes, it is my purple, my shirt – and it still looks perfect – that is good quality, yes. Good quality.

We visit the ''Michoutouchkine and Polioko Foundation''. This turns out to be a 'total concept'. It's a wonderful collection of tropical trees, a museum, a gallery, a lush tree garden spread with artifacts, several buildings which have also been used as canvases for the artistic creation of the two artists. It's also contains the homes of the two artists. We wander in wonder, and these few pictures may give just a hint of the magic of those few acres on the wild shores of the Island of Efate, Vanuatu.

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