Page 346 - Melanesia
P. 346
Key Historical Dates
550BC - First inhabited by Melanesian 1865 - European settlers begin to arrive on ancestors will one day return with goods or
people the islands. “cargo” for them. The British jail the leaders
of the movement and outlaw any mention
1606 - European explorer Pedro Fernandez 1887 - Britain and France establish a Joint of John Frum.
de Quiros leads an expedition to the islands Naval Commission on the islands to protect
naming them Terra Austrialis del Espiritu their citizens. 1956 - John Frum is recognised as a religion
Santo. by the Anglo-French Condominium.
1906 - Britain and France make the country
1768 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville names a Condominium, under joint administra- 1963 - The NaGriamel political movement
the islands Les Grandes Cyclades. tion. Each power is responsible for its own emerges on Espiritu Santo. Followers ad-
citizens but indigenous New Hebrideans vocate the return of land to the ni-Vanuatu
1774 - British explorer Captain Cook charts are looked after by both countries. Non- people and a return to traditional ways.
the islands calling them the New Hebrides. New Hebrideans choose which country they
want to be governed by. 1971 - NaGriamel, anxious that more than
1800s - Thousands of Vanuatu are kid- 36% of the New Hebrides is now owned by
napped and forced to work on sugar and 1938 - Emergence of the John Frum cargo foreign missionaries, planters and traders,
cotton plantations in Fiji and Queens- cult. Believers say goods owned by Ameri- petitions the UN to prevent further land
land, Australia. The practice, known as can and European visitors to the island are sales to non-indigenous people
“blackbirding”, continues until the early really meant for them but are intercepted
20th century. by the foreigners. They believe that their
