This sand drawing from north Pentecost island is the symbol for the number "one". It also symbolises unity or complete-ness. It was used as the logo of the 1st National Sand Drawing Festival held in north Pentecost. Other images on this page are also from the Festival.

Sponsor: UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust For the Preservation and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Brief Description of the Project:
This project has been designed to ensure the safeguarding of sand drawing in Vanuatu and to support the preservation and promotion of this cultural expression, which was proclaimed by the Director General of UNESCO in November 2003 a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Sand drawings are elegant geometric patterns produced directly on the ground which serve to transmit a wealth of traditional knowledge about local history, indigenous rituals and cosmologies, kinship systems, natural phenomena or farming techniques. It is a unique means of communication among the members of the various language groups living in the north of the Vanuatu archipelago. Sand drawing must not only be seen as a graphic and artistic expression. It is also a multifunctional sign system that occurs in a wide range of ritual, contemplative and communicative contexts. Expert sand drawers must possess an intimate knowledge of the numerous graphic patterns and a deep understanding of their complex layers of meaning. This dynamic tradition is transmitted by all age groups and genders in the bearer communities, another important feature of the expression.

Despite modern development and education, sand drawing continues to be a mark of Vanuatu cultural specificity and a means of exchange between the communities. However, its content and deep sense is tending to disappear. Nowadays, only few practitioners still master sand drawing and its associated knowledge. The practice has tended to become focused on the graphic aspect, for advertising or tourism, to the detriment of its original meaning and function.

This action plan was drafted with a view to reconciling issues of national cultural politics with the interests of those for whom these sand drawings are, in addition to being a remarkable cultural practice, above all a living and thriving social reality. Thus, the action plan encompasses the following major activities: promotion and transmission of the skills of expert sand drawers, encouraged through public events such as performances, exhibitions and festivals, incorporation of sand drawings in standard school curricula; establishment of regulations concerning the commercial use of sand drawings and its legal protection; establishment of a trust fund and encouragement of income generating activities linked to this art form; and creation of a database with a view to collating all existing resources on sand drawing.

A “Save Sand Drawings Action Committee” (SOSAK), composed of bearers of the sand drawing tradition, was established in order to implement the action plan in close cooperation with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VKS), the implementing agency. The project will seek to provide SOSAK and VKS with the necessary means for the promotion, awareness raising, safeguarding and transmission of the skills and knowledge to the young generations. It will also underline the significance and the importance of intangible cultural heritage not only at the local level, but also at the national level

Project Background:
Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
In 1997, in response to the concern voiced by numerous Member States for the urgent need to safeguard intangible cultural heritage, UNESCO created the program “Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”. The aim of the Proclamation is to encourage governments, NGOs and local communities to identify, preserve and promote their intangible heritage. It also encourages individuals, groups, institutions and organizations to make significant contributions to managing, preserving, protecting and promoting the intangible heritage.

On 7 November 2003, the Director-General of UNESCO proclaimed a second list of 28 Masterpieces, which included "Vanuatu Sand Drawing". The Proclamation Jury underlined the outstanding value of this cultural expression, its roots in cultural tradition, its affirmative role of cultural identity as a source of inspiration and intercultural exchange, its contemporary cultural and social role, its excellence in the application of skills, its value as a unique testimony of a living cultural tradition which is threatened with disappearance.

Vanuatu’s sand drawing tradition
Vanuatu has managed to preserve its unique and complex tradition of sand drawing. More than an indigenous artistic expression, sand drawing is a multifunctional “writing” that occurs in a wide range of ritual, contemplative and communicative contexts. Trained specialists directly produce the drawings on the ground or in sand, volcanic ash or clay. Using one finger, the drawer traces a continuous meandering line (usually on a guiding grid) to produce a graceful, often symmetrical, composition of geometric patterns. This rich and dynamic graphic tradition has developed as a means of communication among the members of some 80 different language groups inhabiting the central and northern islands of Vanuatu. The drawings also function as mnemonic devices to record and transmit rituals, mythological lore and a wealth of information about local histories, cosmologies, kinship systems, song cycles, farming techniques, architectural and craft design, and choreographic patterns. Most sand drawings possess several functions and layers of meaning: they can be “read” as artistic works, repositories of information, illustration for stories, signatures, or simply messages and objects of contemplation. Since sand drawings are not merely “pictures”, but stand for delicate webs of interconnected songs, stories, and knowledge with sacred and profane meanings, a master sand drawer must possess not only an intimate knowledge of graphic patterns but also a deep understanding of their significance.

Justification of the project:
The ephemeral aspect of sand drawing makes it a particularly fragile cultural form. Exposed to the wind, the drawings seldom remain intact for long periods. The most common designs have been widely diffused on stamps, bank notes and promotional material as attractive symbols of Vanuatu identity. However, the drawings are often showcased as a form of decorative folklore for the tourist industry and other commercial purposes. If left unchecked, this tendency to appreciate sand drawings on a purely aesthetical level may result in the loss of the tradition’s deeper symbolic significance and original social function. Furthermore, nowadays, there are less and less practitioners who can still execute and interpret these drawings.

Sand drawing is a fundamental form of traditional communication and conceptualization, which has the potential to play a central role in developing cultural identity and maintaining cultural continuity for communities in Vanuatu through the promotion of creativity and the preservation of diversity. By continuing the first safeguarding activities and by strengthening the sand drawing tradition through the “Sevem ol Sandroing” (Save the Sand Drawing) project, the people of Vanuatu will maintain the use of a highly unique means of transmitting and developing traditional knowledge.

The VKS has been undertaking activities to document and promote sand drawings for some years. After its Proclamation in November 2003, the ‘Vanuatu Sand Drawing’ candidature file won the Arirang Prize (30,000 USD granted by the Republic of Korea). This contribution has enabled the initiation of safeguarding activities such as the organization of an exhibition at the National Museum in November 2003, the organization of mini festivals in 6 islands and the staging of the first National Sand Drawing Festival in May 2004. The undertaking of these activities has enabled SOSAK and VKS to further refine the focus of safeguarding actions in the current project .

However, to fully implement the national Action Plan drafted by the Vanuatu authorities, the financial and human resources need to be strengthened. Therefore this UNESCO/JFIT project aims to assist the Government of Vanuatu in its efforts for the safeguarding of this tradition and develop the necessary means to pursue these safeguarding actions in the longer term.

On its side, the Vanuatu Government has improved its commitments to this important project. Thus, the government funds the Vanuatu Cultural Centre to undertake cultural heritage preservation and safeguarding work in Vanuatu. In 2005, the Government has increased its funding to the Centre in recognition of its successful ongoing work to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage, and in particular sand drawing (as a result of its proclamation as a masterpiece by UNESCO). The Cultural Centre itself has been documenting and promoting the revitalisation of sand drawing among practitioners and at a national level for many years now, and these efforts are continuing both as part of the UNESCO-funded program and outside of it. The Government has committed itself to raising the profile of sand drawing through its inclusion in the national school curriculum and through using sand drawing as a "brand name" for the country in tourism and related international promotion. The Government has also committed itself to improving infrastructure at sites used for practitioner-promotion festivals, as was the case for the 1st National Sand Drawing Festival held in Atanbwalo village on the island of Pentecost, which saw significant upgrading to the road and school facilities there. Imminent Government commitments to the safeguarding of sand drawing are expected in the sphere of legal protection.

Project Overview:
This action plan was drafted with a view to reconciling issues of national cultural policies with the interests of those for whom these sand drawings are, in addition to being a remarkable cultural practice, above all a living and thriving social reality. Thus the project will be articulated around a set of complementary core activities under two major components:

1) Revitalisation, transmission and promotion
• Revitalization and transmission of the practice of sand drawing among the tradition-bearers and practitioners themselves, at both a community/village and individual level, through organization of gatherings and festivals to bring practitioners together and facilitate exchanges of knowledge and practice.
• Integration into school program: School education will ensure that children get to appreciate and learn about sand drawing inside the classroom as well as outside of it.
• National and international awareness-raising to consolidate a national commitment to safeguarding of the sand drawing tradition.

2) Legal protection, income generating activities and inventory-making
• Establishment of a legal framework to safeguard the tradition.
• Financial safeguarding will be ensured through income generating activities. Selective commercialization of the sand drawing tradition, closely controlled by the tradition-bearers themselves, will provide for the financial sustainability of the safeguarding actions in the long term.
• Establishment of a database that will collate all existing resources on sand drawing into a form able to be easily accessed and used to produce specific sets of sand drawing information.

Management Mechanism
The project will be implemented by the Vanuatu Cultural Center (“Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta”, VKS) in close collaboration with the SOSAK (Save Sand Drawings Action Committee, or SOSAK from "Sevem ol Sandroing Aksen Komiti” in Bislama).

The VKS, which is the institution legally responsible for cultural heritage management at the national level, will be the main implementing agency. In order to guarantee the involvement of practitioners, the VKS will work in close collaboration with the bearers of the sand drawing tradition, who are represented through the Save Sand Drawings Action Committee (SOSAK). This Committee was formed in November 2003 (immediately after UNESCO’s proclamation) and includes at least one representative from each of the different cultural groups in central-northern Vanuatu that practice sand drawing, in addition to the designated Cultural Centre fieldworkers from these cultures. The list of these representatives and fieldworkers (the members of SOSAK) is as follows:
Paiat Womai (Motalava); Jeffrey Uliboe and Irene Lini (Maewo), Robert Garae, Roslyn Garae and Dickinson Bata (Ambae), Jimmy Simeon, Hantison Sangmuru, Abong Tete, Fabrice Leman and Honorine Smythe (Malakula), Salkon Yona (Epi), Amos Jack (Paama),
Philip Talevu, Emele Moses and Karu Luan (Ambrym), Patrick Bule, Bruce Tabi, Simon Godin, Kolombas Todali and John Leo Tamata (Pentecost).

All of the above individuals participated in a series of meetings held during the 1st National Sand Drawing Festival in May 2004 which established basic policy guidelines and identified a number of key protection and promotion measures for safeguarding sand drawing which form the substance of this action plan. Most of them are themselves sand drawing practitioners and a number of them were involved in the preparation of the original candidature file, which successfully nominated sand drawing for inscription as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

For practical reasons, SOSAK will be flexible in membership and its constitution will differ depending on the location of future meetings and the availability of the members. One of the key features of SOSAK is that it is comprised of relatively young practitioners with an awareness of national cultural issues who still know the techniques and meanings of the practice. They are in the best position to work as intermediaries and to show the older and younger members of the community the need to continue to pass on the different aspects of this practice. Therefore, the guardians of these traditions - who are also the people with the right to make the drawings - are at the heart of the action plan.

Objectives:
The following objectives have been identified:
• Raise awareness of the tradition’s importance at national, provincial and community levels;
• Strengthen the living context of the social reproduction of sand drawing by individual practitioners within communities;
• Promote the sand drawing tradition as a symbol of Vanuatu’s national identity to enhance national pride and international recognition;
• Ensure that the practitioners can be given means to maintain and manage the tradition;
• Foster the conditions necessary for the ongoing transmission of cultural knowledge and heritage.

Project Components in Detail:
1 Revitalisation, transmission and promotion

A-1 Revitalization, transmission and promotion
The action plan prioritizes the revitalization and the transmission of the practice of sand drawing among the tradition-bearers/practitioners themselves, at both a community/village and individual level. Numerous showcase events, meetings and festivals will be organized at community, regional (area-specific) and national level. These events will bring together practitioners to display, share, exchange and transmit their knowledge and expertise within host tradition-bearing communities, thus providing incentives for revitalization. Two national festivals will be organized in this framework. Sand drawing practitioners will also be supported to participate in appropriate national and international forums, in order to raise the international and national profile of the practice as well as provide additional incentives for practitioners. Funds under this budget line will be used mainly to cover the costs of transporting participants by boat, ship and plane to and from festival venues. Other expenditure will include food subsidies to festival organizers, communication costs and other costs associated with the staging of festivals bringing together participants from many areas.

• Support to the organization of gatherings/festivals initiated by communities to strengthen the living context of the social reproduction of sand drawing. Recognized practitioners from outside the immediate community will attend these gatherings in order to enhance cultural exchanges between sand drawing traditions. In the framework of the project, five meetings are foreseen:
1) Ambrym Sand Drawing Festival (Ambrym)
2) Ambae Sand Drawing Festival (Ambae)
3) Malakula Sand Drawing Festival (Malakula)
4) Epi/Paama Sand Drawing Festival (Paama)
5) Banks Sand Drawing Festival (Vanua Lava)

• Sand drawing practitioners will be supported to participate in the 3rd Melanesian Arts Festival in Fiji, as well as other international forums, in order to raise the international and national profile of the practice as well as provide additional incentives for practitioners.

• Staging of the 1st National Women’s Sand Drawing Festival on Maewo island.
The role of Women: One of the issues that emerged during the initial awareness component of the Sevem ol Sandroing project was the important, but often undervalued role of women within the sand drawing tradition. Women have played an important role in teaching sand drawing to children and distributing the tradition through migration brought about by marriage. In fact, it is said that women once had their own sub-traditions of sand drawing in some areas of Vanuatu. While organizing participants for the first national sand drawing festival, however, it was noted that many women were reluctant to attend. SOSAK consequently agreed that it would be of utmost benefit to stage sand drawing festivals specifically for women, as a way of fostering the skills and knowledge of female practitioners. Thus, the 1st National Women’s Sand Drawing Festival is foreseen in the current project

• Staging of the 2nd National Sand Drawing Festival on Akhamb island (south Malakula), with sailing canoe promotion component
The canoe promotion component of festivals: The geographical distribution of sand drawing corresponds exactly with an area that is sometimes called the “inland sea” of Vanuatu. The central and northern islands of the archipelago cluster around this section of ocean to protect it from large swell and rough seas, making it ideal for inter-island travel in small vessels (and specifically traditional outrigger sailing canoes). Over several centuries this allowed an extensive network of relationships to develop between different language groups. This is testified to by the dispersion and modification of songs, stories and rituals throughout the cultures that flank this inland sea. Traditionally, sand drawing was integral to this dynamic circulation of information and knowledge. In fact, sand drawing probably developed as a form of communication and symbolic exchange within this cultural network, allowing ideas to be shared between different language groups. The strong link between sand drawing and inter-island travel is underscored by early ethnographies, which record sand drawing designs that depict double-hulled canoes. During the first National Sand Drawing Festival, practitioners from around the inland sea gathered in North Pentecost to demonstrate their distinctive sand drawing styles and perform their associated stories. One of the positive outcomes of this event was an increased sense of shared heritage among people from around this region. As a result, it was highlighted that the project should build on this by incorporating canoe travel into the occasion and emphasizing the long tradition of exchange that distinguishes the cultures of the inland sea.

A-2 Integration into School program
It is important that children get to appreciate and learn about sand drawing inside the classroom as well as outside of it (at home). Being taught about sand drawings in the classroom will reinforce the importance of this tradition for children who are also learning about them from their parents or elders, and in cases where the tradition is not being taught at home, it will stimulate children to encourage their parents and elders to begin to teach them sand drawing in the traditional community setting. The activities hereunder aim to achieve this objective.
• Publication of books about sand drawing for use by school children in practitioner communities: one book aimed at years 1 and 2 and one book aimed at years 4 and 5, for each of the following islands and areas: Epi, Paama, Ambrym, South and Central Pentecost, North Pentecost, Maewo, Ambae, North and west Malakula, South-east, south and south-west Malakula, Banks Islands.
• Study into the opportunities and requirements for utilizing/inserting sand drawing into the national curriculum. This activity will be carried out by VKS with assistance from a consultant.
• Establishment of a national annual competition for school students, encouraging them to learn designs and stories from their community elders and gain an appreciation of this cultural form. Categories of prizes will be awarded (eg. previously-unrecorded designs, most detailed transcribed story, best technical reproduction, best demonstration of links with other cultural expressions, etc) to encourage students to undertake quality research with their elders and really learn certain sand drawing. The competition will be run through and coordinated by the Department of Education.

A-3 National and international awareness raising
Awareness raising within the tradition-bearing areas will be principally addressed through the practitioner-promoting festivals (see project component A-1). The weekly VKS program on national radio will also raise awareness at a more generalized national level. Other actions to this end will include:
• Creation of permanent interactive sand drawing display for the National Museum of Vanuatu.
• Publication of an information package (book and DVD) on sand drawing aimed at international audiences (especially curators, scholars, and arts administrators).
• Production of short films about sand drawing.
• Establishment of an Internet site dedicated to sand drawing.

2 Legal protection, income generating activities and inventory-making

B-1 Legal safeguarding
The legal framework to be put in place seeks to tackle the problem of the clash of different jurisdictions – that of the State and that of the practitioners. By recognizing to some extent their unity in diversity, the law protects the individual rights of the guardians of these traditions and at the same time gives the State and the monitoring body the means to protect the practice nationally by preventing abusive exploitation by commercial interests (especially tourism).
• The VKS will draft a national law for the protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of traditional culture based on merging (i) the “Model law for the protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of culture” (developed by Pacific Island states through the Secretariat for the Pacific Community and UNESCO) and (ii) the “Model law for the protection of traditional ecological knowledge, innovations and practices” (developed by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and WIPO)
• Translation into Bislama
• Nation-wide consultations about this draft law
• Amendments and preparation of a final draft to go before Parliament

B-2 Financial safeguarding
The selective commercialization of the sand drawing tradition, closely controlled by the tradition-bearers themselves, is necessary to provide for the financial sustainability of the safeguarding actions (beyond the period of UNESCO funding). Copyright over all products will be held by the VKS on behalf of the traditional owners with the agreement of the owners. Proceeds from income generating activities will be deposited in a trust fund that will be established with a commercial bank in the national capital (Port Vila – where the VKS head office is located). The VKS will administer the fund using its existing management structure, commercial expertise and product distribution and marketing networks. The Director, accounts officer and marketing manager of the VKS will be the authorized signatories to the account. SOSAK will be regularly updated on the status of the fund and will decide the dispersal of funds, with assistance from the VKS. Once a year, the VKS will report to officials and SOSAK about the use of the funds and discuss plans for future use.
• Identification, by representatives of practitioner communities (SOSAK), of sand drawing designs and stories that can be used in the public realm.
• The compilation of authorized sand drawing in a press kit, in order to ensure that appropriate reproductions are used by third parties (journalists, travel writers, etc.).
• Selective licensing of sand drawing images for use in commercial and private sector contexts.
• Creation of sand drawing products to be marketed locally and internationally (DVD/CD, brochures, booklets and T-shirts ).
• Providing assistance (purchase of equipment and materials) to the Atanbwalo community to begin manufacturing sand drawing products.
• Establishing a trust fund that will be fed by these commercial initiatives and used to finance future safeguarding activities.

B-3 Establishment of a database
The database will collate all existing resources on sand drawing into a form able to be easily accessed and used to produce specific sets of sand drawing information (for example, pertaining to one particular area of an island or one particular oral tradition). The VKS will establish the database with technical assistance from a Canadian volunteer being placed with the VKS in 2005-6 with the specific task of setting up the organisation's various databases and other scholars. The database will be housed in the National Museum, the headquarters of the VKS, and be linked with the Centre's other databases.
• Collation of all existing resources on sand drawing.
• Establishment of a computer database linked to archival records.
• Training programs to familiarize SOSAK members with the database, in order to maximize community access to this resource.
• Periodic printouts of records relevant to specific language groups, so that these can be circulated within communities that do not have computer access.

Expected Results:
The principal results expected upon completion of the project are:
• The revitalization of the practice of sand drawing in tradition-bearing communities;
• Enhanced conditions for the ongoing transmission of sand drawing and related cultural heritage within tradition-bearing communities (fostered by the increased awareness and pride of community members and greater recognition and support from outside);
• The institution of a national law for the protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of traditional culture, to provide protection for sand drawing and other related traditional cultural expressions;
• The creation of a trust fund to finance future safeguarding activities, funded through the establishment and marketing of a range of commercial sand drawing products;
• Increased awareness of the tradition’s importance at community, provincial, national and international levels, resulting from a range of measures including the establishment of a dedicated website and a permanent exhibit in the National Museum;
• Establishment of a sand drawing database, for both research and promotional purposes, but also to assist the protection and safeguarding of sand drawing practitioners and their practice;
• Insertion of sand drawing into the national curriculum and the production of educational publications for this purpose (and more general educational purposes);
• Greater control by practitioners and bearers over the sand drawing tradition and greater agency in its safeguarding, affected principally through SOSAK.