Risking Kastom

Built on oral tradition and ancestral law, Kastom shapes land, knowledge, and identity in Vanuatu. It binds people through oral teachings, crafts, and survival skills. As modernity and climate change advance, preserving Kastom become an act of resistance.

Kastom is Bislama for custom, something that reaches far beyond tradition, carrying the weight of heritage, survival, and identity.

Built on self-determination and ancestral law, Kastom defines land ownership, knowledge propagation, and the very understanding of oneʼs place in the world.

In the isolation of Vanuatuʼs more than eighty islands, Kastom is the invisible connector binding people spread across its discontinuous geography in a remarkable living system of beliefs, teachings, and crafts passed on through word of mouth. It teaches lifesaving skills, preserves community ties, and tells stories of ancestral origin.

Despite being built on fragile oral memory, it is remarkably etched in breathing memory thanks to the ongoing efforts of resilience and endurance. As new faith structures, modernity, and climate change quickly reshape life, Kastom risks fading into extinction, making the act of preserving it an act of resistance.

This story explores Kastom as the pivotal instrument for survival, continuity and belonging through its extraordinary rituals, laws and nuances, actively transforming what is considered memory in peril into a tangible cultural life form.