One of the biggest cultural events to happen in 2006 was the 2nd National Sandroing (“sand drawing”) Festival which took place on the small island of Akhamb off the south of Malakula from the 27th until the 31st of August.
There were over 370 participants in the Festival coming from almost every island which has the sand drawing tradition: Maewo, Pentecost and Ambae in PENAMA Province, Ambrym, Malakula and Paama in MALAMPA Province and Epi in SHEFA Province. Only Vanualava and Motalava in TORBA Province were absent, due to problems with travel arrangements from this, Vanuatu's most northerly Province. A notable feature of the Festival was the participation of many groups from a number of different cultural communities on the island of Malakula itself – about half the participants in the Festival were from Malakula.
Although the festival’s focus was sand drawing – which was the main activity taking place – there were many other traditional activities featured in the Festival, including dances, games, magic shows, story-telling, string figures and weaving demonstrations. A major outcome of the Festival was the revival and performance of a traditional dance of Akhamb island itself, that had not been performed in about 105 years (since missionisation).
One of the highlights of the 2nd National Sandroing Festival was the large canoes in which some participants sailed to Akhamb. There were 5 large canoes which fieldworkers of the Cultural Centre and their communities made to sail to the Festival: one from Pellongk village in the Maskelynes (south Malakula), one from Wujunmel village in central Pentecost, one from Meltueyon village in west Ambrym, one from Lamen island in north Epi and one from Mafilau village in south-west Epi. These large canoes arrived in the Maskelynes islands from the 23rd of August, and then sailed together to the Festival site as part of the official opening. A number of smaller canoes from the Maskelynes, Tomman island and Akhamb accompanied the larger canoes sailing to Akhamb. The sailing canoe component of the Festival recognizes the close link between sand drawings and inter-island canoe voyaging. Over several centuries, sailing canoes allowed an extensive network of relationships to develop between different language groups in the islands of the central north of Vanuatu. 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 2nd National Sandroing Festival is the second national festival after the first festival was held in North Pentecost in May 2004. In 2005, the 1st National Sandroing Festival for Women was held in Kerepei village in central Maewo. UNESCO is funding the holding of these festivals following its declaration of sand drawing as a part of the universal “World Heritage” in 2003.
A film about the 2nd National Sandroing Festival will be produced and become available in 2007.
