Chief Willie Bongmatur Maldo and the role of Chiefs in Vanuatu

Abstract

Abstract There were and are many different forms of indigenous community leadership in the archipelago now known as Vanuatu. Missionaries and officials of the Anglo‐French Condominium Government introduced into this diversity the concept ‘chief, a title used to designate the men who represented their communities in the non‐traditional contexts of church and state. During the period in which Vanuatu sought and achieved Independence, this role for chiefs altered. They became not so much those who engaged with the new, as those who represented the old. The foundation of the National Council of Chiefs defined chiefs as authoritative representatives of indigenous knowledge and practice, and constituted them as advisers to the Parliament, giving traditionalist ni‐Vanuatu a stake in the creation of the new nation. This paper tracks this transformation through the career of Chief Willie Bongmatur Maldo, founding President of the National Council of Chiefs, and an influential figure in the formation of the independent state of Vanuatu.