Building community resilience through safeguarding traditional architecture on Erromango island, Vanuatu (ovon nimo norop)

Increased frequency and intensity of climate change-induced disasters in Vanuatu are burdening community resilience and require an increased investment in sustainable cyclone shelters. For Erromangan communities, the time and resources needed for disaster recovery are overstretching community capacity for disaster resilience, and limit capacity to undertake other development activities.

A key means of lessening this community burden is to ensure that people’s homes are built to withstand severe tropical cyclones, using locally available materials. In 2016, an ECA documentary about community resilience post-TC Pam highlighted the importance of traditional cyclone architecture for enabling rapid disaster recovery. However, several key knowledge holders have since passed on, and the few remaining traditional master-builders are elderly.

The project goal is to safeguard traditional cyclone resilience practices through promoting the inter-generational transfer of traditional knowledge relating to cyclone-resistant building and traditional agricultural and ecological knowledge for maintaining adequate supplies of traditional plant-based building materials.

Short-term outcomes: practical transfer of traditional architectural knowledge from elder master builders to 40 community members (male and female) in the Unpongkor and Unpang / Ipota communities of Erromango (areas hardest hit by the recent cyclones). 

Specifically, short-term outcomes including building for resilience to ensure that ancient wisdom and knowledge of traditional architecture – nimo norop —is transferred between generations and applied in communities. Demonstration workshops led by traditional master-builders in the target communities will showcase and teach basic construction and maintenance techniques for traditional cyclone houses, nimo norop. Working closely with community leaders, the demonstration workshops will also create a community-built nimo norop for use during cyclones. A documentary will also be created to support cultural preservation and knowledge transfer to the wider Erromangan community.

Other information

This project will be delivered across two sites on Erromango: Unpongkor (West), Ipota (East), based on need, connectivity and wider modelling potential. In 2023-24 these villages will be hosting a range of provincial and national events at which demonstrations of Erromango’s traditional architecture will also have broader national public awareness / appeal. This project is funded by the generous support of the Canadian High Commission to Australia (hyperlink pending), plus contributions from community volunteers.