Antonio Avelar

The Imaio people still live in the vicinity of Mount Yasur, in Tanna Island, Vanuatu. Their ancestral origin myth revolves around the active volcano, stating that it has been responsible for granting wishes and maintaining livelihood by allowing for fresh and salt water to be readily available around it, for the purposeful consumption by its ‘descendants’. In fact, in the Imaio Bislama dialect, the volcano is fondly referred to with the same term used for ‘grandparent’. Their ancestral home is the lush compact mountainside that confluences into the ash plains, which remain identity and territory.

Vanuatu