#vanuatuans

Islands in a vast ocean, canoes and boats play a big role in Melanesian history. In Fijian folklore, kaunitoni was a canoe that carried ancestral founders to the island. The Solomon Islands were named by the Spanish, who, finding gold on their arrival in 1568, thought they had discovered the source of King Solomon’s wealth. From 1865, boats facilitated the colonial practice of ‘blackbirding’, the transport of people through deception or force for the purposes of labour. Large numbers of Solomon Islanders and Vanuatuans were taken to Fiji to work on cotton plantations.