Unfolding the Moon

the long version

"Unfolding the Moon is a lucid and engaging account of a quiet but crucial transformation in the status of women in Vanuatu. In the first decades after independence in 1980, kastom - ingenous knowledge and practice - became a key marker of ni-Vanuatu identity. Long used as a unifying force against the Anglo-French expatriates by leaders of the independence movement, kastom was almost entirely concerned with men: women were effectively excluded from participating in arts festivals, cultural programs, and other new national events. Then in 1991 the Vanuatu Cultural Centre initiated a project that focused on women's knowledge and skill in producing plaited pandanus textiles (mats) on the island of Ambae in north Vanuatu. This acknowledgment that "women have kastom too," widely welcomed by rural ni-Vanuatu, was an important step in establishing women's kastom."--BOOK JACKET.