Location: Ontar Village, Gaua, Torba Province, Vanuatu
From the album 'Nēvēnek: Ground Music from Torba Province, Vanuatu'
In the late nineteenth century, a white man named Maurice sailed to Lakona Bay, Gaua. He exploded some dynamite from his boat, to make a frightening sound to get the attention of the people from the village and draw them to the beach to see where the sound was coming from. First, he gave away gifts: clothes and fabric, food and tobacco, to entice the people from Gaua to trade with him.
He left and when he came back a short time later, he started to trade with locals for goods. He taught them how to make money with copra but then he increased the prices of his goods by two times and then three times. The people were not able to afford to pay, so he asked them to give him a piece of land instead. The people agreed and he settled at Quetevut and built himself a little trade store from where he
sold his goods. If you come to Quetevut you can see a piece of concrete from Maurice’s store. Father Levi Sandy sings this song to recall this story.
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About the album:
In the north eastern corner of the Coral Sea is a group of reefs, atolls, and islands, a complex aqua/archi-pelago - where the 9000 residents share more than 15 languages and one overarching cosmology of respect, which they refer to as Qat.
In 2018, Sandy Sur invited a team of producers and researchers to experience the Dung Verei - the sounds of four of these islands: Gaua, Ureparapara, Rowa and Mota Lava.
Nēvēnek: Ground Music from Torba Province, Vanuatu features songs and stories that touch on all of the elements of Banks Islands culture and introduce some other less familiar aspects.
From soaring vocal harmonies to the breathy solos of elders, from bamboo pipes to ground plates, these recordings have been curated with the chiefs and the communities.
Nēvēnek is music grounded in place, while also presenting a sense of how the people of Torba see themselves as situated in a contemporary world; indeed the recordings here connect Banks Islanders to Queensland through the Pacific Island slave-trade on the late 19th century, to the first arrival and acceptance of traders and missionaries, to the global process of decolonisation and nation-forming in the late 20th century.
Nēvēnek is a compendium of an oral history that is alive and evolving.
Recorded at:
Dolag village, Gaua
Leserpla Village, Ureparapara
Totolag village, Mota Lava
Torba Province, Vanuatu, May 2018
credits
from Wantok Musik Vol. 3,
released May 20, 2022
Recorded by Andrew Robinson
Mixed & Mastered by Andrew Robinson at ToRurua Studios, Melbourne. Produced by David Bridie & Sandy Sur
Photography - Nicky Kuautonga, David Bridie, Melinda Lucas
Album design - Rosa Coyle-Hayward
Music Directors
Gaua - Chief Willie Plasua, John Star
Ureparapara - Chief Nicholson Dini, Chief David Rosco.
Mota Lava - Chief Kenken Fraser, Chief Dickinson Levi, Chief Pascale Levi, Edgar Howard
Wantok Musik aims to generate and foster various cultural exchanges between Australia and our neighbours throughout Oceania by establishing a leading, not-for-profit Music Label representing First Nations and World Music groups of this unique region.
The excellent Barcelona label House of (S)PUNK is back with a five-song comp showcasing the local hardgroove scene. Bandcamp New & Notable May 1, 2024