"Graon Hemi Laef, (Land is Life)": struggle for land continues in Vanuatu: "Land is Life and Life is Land" is the declaration of the International Indigenous Youth Conference, held in the Philippines, April 2000.

Land is central to Indigenous culture, survival and resistance. The push of globalisation to 'develop' a world of cash economies and eradicate mixed and subsistence systems requires the transformation of land into commodity. Vanuatu is in this situation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loans and government land policies that promote foreign investment. Yet this risk of losing ownership of the land and the subversion of customary land ownership effectively undermines the 1980 constitutional guarantee of land ownership for Indigenous Ni-Vanuatu people, and threatens their entire way of life.

Vanuatu, an island archipelago, is home to 113 distinct cultures and languages as well as to the official languages Bislama, French and English. The word Ni-Vanuatu is a fairly recent collectivization of these distinct peoples, used to bring people together after independence. This diversity can make land ownership complex and ripe for manipulation by governments and foreign powers.

It is a common experience for Native people in Canada that, when it comes to colonial governments and within our own governance systems, money divides and creates conflict. Aboriginal peoples' poverty in Canada is different than in Vanuatu but the result is the same: when money and power are offered, it creates division between tribes and Nations, and leads to the breakdown of traditional governance and land ownership. The process of colonization transformed land from an entity with which people held a reciprocal, fluid and organic relationship, into a commodity--something associated with money that required papers to prove title. When the surveyors and land registrations come, they mark the boundaries and lay the groundwork for land to enter the market.

The philosophical shift from land belonging to a community to land as a commodity creates disputes. Those with more power in a community [often chiefs or men in leadership] sign the papers when in reality the land is owned by more than one person. Traditionally, certain trees, stones or rivers marked boundaries and that knowledge was passed down through oral tradition. In the old days, boundaries between different clan lands were often more delineated than those within clans, although in general they were flexible boundaries.

Disputes often arise as a result of this divisive practice. Since Vanuatu's independence in 1980, a land dispute resolution process has existed in the form of Island Courts, also responsible for issuing title to customary land. However, the court rulings are defined by Western ideas of private property, which are derived from a feudal system as opposed to the more fluid and customary land ownership practiced by Indigenous peoples.

The division and commodification of land has left it open to purchase by any who can afford it. And the Vanuatu government openly encourages foreign investment. Witness this statement by the Government of Vanuatu in its effort to promote investment: "Vanuatu is currently one of the best bets for those people in the civilized world who are dreaming of escaping from the rat race into the tropical paradises of the South Pacific." The Government passed new legislation--such as the Strata Titles Act--to make it easier for people to invest with a reasonable chance of a good return. It streamlined its Foreign Investment Board, customs, and immigration procedures to make formalities of investing and residency as profitable as possible. Although investors cannot currently buy land, they can lease it. Leases generally run for 50 years for residential property and 75 years for commercial property with the lease renewable if, for example, property is subdivided.

In urban areas of Port Vila and Lugainville, there are freehold lands to be bought and sold. After independence, the Vanuatu government negotiated with custom owners of these lands to compensate them for loss of rights to their clan lands. Expatriate-run waterfront hotels and resorts lie in telling contrast to the subdivision of tin houses where Ni-Vanuatu return home after working in these hotels and resorts. So not all Ni-Vanuatu still have rights to land.

The issue is control and power. As Indigenous people, with the land we control our own lives, and we have power to determine our own future. When we lose the land, we become commodities selling our labour and our culture to survive. To open the market for promised development, the new laws coming to Vanuatu are imposed by outside forces like the ADB. As land is gradually taken away, one must ask: who is this development for and who does it really benefit? Around Port Vila, the benefits seem to be restricted to a few wealthy foreigners.

ADB programmes for Vanuatu focus on financial infrastructure, land ownership, development, increasing the size of the labour force, and good governance. Vanuatu is the 32nd largest shareholder in the ADB among its regional members. ADB's strategy for Vanuatu focuses on reforms in economic policy, governance, and public sector management, poverty reduction, and private sector development. Cumulative ADB lending to Vanuatu in 2001 was US$51.3 million. ADB also is in the business of hiring outside consultants, often foreign, who are involved in thousands of ADB projects.

With that kind of money, the ADB has more influence with the Vanuatu government than the people themselves. Indebted, the government has become more and more hostage to ADB and foreign development guides. People in rural villages on outer islands are often not included in critical dialogue about land policy or what development they want. The Vanuatu government, pressured by the ADB and guided by expatriate consultants, makes the decisions.

"The Land belongs to the people, to our ancestors. Everyone in the villages has land, they cultivate it and grow the things they need to survive. No one is without land. Right now everybody has land and can make their living from it--no one is hungry. If we have our land we are free; if we lose our land then we don't have any more food or means of survival. That is real poverty."

These were the words of a member of a youth aware ness team on Ambrym Island trying to look critically at government and foreign land registration policies.

The Lolihor Youth Awareness Team was formed in response to a workshop in Ranon that looked at land and colonization. LYAT will be travelling across Ambrym Island, meeting with communities and discussing these critical issues. It is this kind of awareness-raising that will help the Ni-Van people make decisions for themselves and become more involved in government decisions. No, they won't have cars and big houses, but they will remain free in their own land.

If the land is sold or if there is a drastic shift to a cash economy and local people lose the land, the Ni-Vanuatu will be labourers in their own land, no longer self-determined. The power of the people is transferred to government through land registration and people are afraid that, if this happens, they can be taxed. In a rural village subsistence economy, there is no cash. So, when land is registered and people can't pay the taxes, the government gets the land. ADB strategies are simply the next form of colonization for Vanuatu, the colonization of global economies.

Real poverty is loss of land. It is poverty that Native people in Canada know too well. These rural communities might not have cars or indoor toilets and washrooms but they have gardens and their systems and culture. They determine their future for themselves. That is freedom not poverty.

Tania Willard is from the Secwepemc Nation in the interior of British Columbia. She is the managing editor of Redwire Magazine, a quarterly National Native youth magazine. Tania graduated from the University of Victoria with a degree in Fine Arts. Communication and media have been her way of finding her voice and listening to others.