Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is an island country in Melanesia, located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 540 km (340 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.
The history of Vanuatu spans over 3,200 years.
Port Vila, or simply Vila, is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate.
Bislama is an English-based creole language and one of the official languages of Vanuatu. It is the first language of many of the "Urban ni-Vanuatu" and the second language of much of the rest of the country's residents. The lyrics of "Yumi, Yumi, Yumi", the country's national anthem, are composed in Bislama.
New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three thousand years before the first Europeans arrived in 1606 from a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The islands were named by Captain James Cook in 1774 and subsequently colonised by both the British and the French.
Walter Hadye Lin̄i was a Raga Anglican priest and politician who was the first Prime Minister of Vanuatu, from independence in 1980 to 1991. He was born at Agatoa village, Pentecost Island. On his mother's side, he was a descendant of the high chief Virasangvulu, while on his father's side, he was descended from the famous weaver, Nuenue, as well as from the high chief Viralalau.
Scouts Australia is a trading name of The Scout Association of Australia, which is the largest scouting organisation in Australia, claiming 48,796 children and youths and 2,792 young adult participants in 2022, and is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. It was formed in 1958 and incorporated in 1967. It operates personal development programs for children and young adults from 5 to 25 years of age with programs successively opened to girls after 1971.
Pentecost Island is one of the 83 islands that make up the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.
Shefa is one of the six provinces of Vanuatu, located in the center of the country and including the islands of Epi and Efate and the Shepherd Islands. The province's name is derived from the initial letters of SHepherd and EFAte. It has a population of 78,723 people and an area of 1,455 km2. Its capital is Port Vila, which is also the capital of the nation.
Ni-Vanuatu is a large group of closely related Melanesian ethnic groups native to the island country of Vanuatu. As such, Ni-Vanuatu are a mixed ethnolinguistic group with a shared ethnogenesis that speak a multitude of languages.
The Republic of Vanuatu has the world's highest linguistic density per capita.
Rugby union in Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides, is a popular sport. Vanuatu is a tier three rugby union playing nation. They began playing international rugby union in 1966 and have yet to make the Rugby World Cup.
Iririki is a privately leased island, located in Mele Bay, near Port Vila, the Capital of Vanuatu. The island is owned and operated by Australian businessmen Shane Pettiona, Darren Pettiona, and Peter Stockley.
Wan Smolbag Theatre is a non-government organisation based in Vanuatu, but operating all over the South Pacific. Wan Smolbag Theatre is primarily a development theatre group aiming to create awareness and engagement with issues surrounding education, health, governance, the environment, youth and gender.
The French Republic and the Republic of Vanuatu have long-standing bilateral relations which have varied over the years between tense and amicable. Vanuatu, then known as the New Hebrides, was a Franco-British condominium from 1906 to 1980, and maintained formal relations with both of its former colonial masters after gaining independence. Franco–Vanuatuan relations were rocked by a series of crises in the 1980s, and broke down completely on several occasions, with Vanuatu expelling the French ambassador in 1981, in 1984 and in 1987. Relations improved from the 1990s onwards and, today, France provides development aid to Vanuatu. The two countries also share amicable economic and cultural relations; both are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.
The Catholic Church in Vanuatu is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Catholics constitute 13% of the population of Vanuatu. The church is organized into one diocese based in the capital of Port Vila. The diocese is a member of the Pacific Bishops Conference.
The Republic of Vanuatu is an officially trilingual state in the western Pacific, the three national languages being English, French and Bislama. There is a diversity of newspapers, but only one, state-owned television channel. Private radio stations are a recent development; there were reportedly none in 2007.
Darrell T. Tryon was a New Zealand-born linguist, academic, and specialist in Austronesian languages. Specifically, Tryon specialised in the study of the languages of the Pacific Islands, particularly Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and the French-speaking Pacific.
The Vanuatu Labor Corps was a labour unit of the United States Armed Forces consisting of New Hebrides natives. The unit was established in 1942 and dissolved in 1945. During its service it provided crucial logistical support to the Allied war effort during the Guadalcanal Campaign. It was jointly led by Major George Riser and Thomas Beatty, while its size fluctuated between 1,000 and 10,000 men.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Vanuatu refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Vanuatu. As of 2022, there were 11,304 members in 37 congregations, making it the third largest body of LDS Church members in Melanesia behind Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Vanuatu has the most LDS Church members per capita in Melanesia, and the sixth most members per capita of any country in the world, behind Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
