Foundations of Urbanisation: Port Vila Town and Pango Village,Vanuatu

Urbanisation in contemporary Melanesia must be understood by examining not only rural to urban migration, but also the ways in which communities adjacent to town have appropriated and participated in urban living. This paper considers the engagement between the village of Pango and the town of Port Vila. This relationship can be understood by mapping the history of Pango prior to the development of Port Vila, and through its subsequent history. This paper considers natural disasters, revolution, migration, depopulation, education wage employment, colonial administration and post-Independence transformations, and the way they are interpreted, remembered and expressed. Pango's status as a peri-urban village affects the way Pangoans invoke the past and interpret the present.