Chief Roi Mata's Domain: Vanuatu's First World Heritage Site

Who he was

Roi Mata was a paramount chief who held authority across the islands off north-west Efate around the turn of the seventeenth century. Oral tradition credits him with ending a period of warfare by reorganising the clans into a system of titles that cut across existing rivalries.

Three places

The domain inscribed by UNESCO in 2008 has three parts: his residence at Mangaas on Efate; Feles Cave on Lelepa, where he died; and Artok, the small island where he was buried.

The burial

The site was excavated in the 1960s by the archaeologist José Garanger, working from oral accounts that named the place. He found the chief's grave surrounded by the remains of more than fifty people, buried in pairs, consistent with the tradition that members of each clan accompanied him. The tradition and the excavation matched closely enough that the case is still cited as an example of oral history establishing an archaeological fact.

Visiting

Artok is tabu. It was avoided for centuries after the burial and access remains restricted; visits to the domain are arranged through the communities of Lelepa and Mangaliliu, who hold the site and the rights to tell its story.

What the tradition said

Oral accounts held that Roi Mata was buried on Artok with members of the clans that owed him allegiance, that his death occurred in a cave on Lelepa, and that Artok was placed under tabu afterwards so completely that nobody gardened or lived on it for centuries.

All three claims were specific enough to test.

What Garanger found

José Garanger excavated on Artok in 1967 on the strength of those accounts. He found a central burial with the remains of a man of unusual stature, surrounded by more than fifty other individuals, many in pairs, several apparently interred alive. Radiocarbon put the burial at around 1600.

The tradition and the ground agreed in detail. The case is cited internationally as one of the clearest demonstrations that oral history can carry verifiable fact across four centuries.

The reforms

Roi Mata is credited with ending a period of clan warfare on and around Efate by imposing a system of matrilineal titles that cut across existing groupings, so that no clan was wholly opposed to another. The titles are still in use.

The World Heritage listing

UNESCO inscribed Chief Roi Mata’s Domain in 2008 — Vanuatu’s first listing — covering Mangaas, Feles Cave on Lelepa and the burial site on Artok. The nomination was notable for being driven by the customary owners, and the management plan leaves decisions about access in their hands.

Seeing the domain today

Tours run from Mangaliliu and Lelepa villages on the north-west coast of Efate. Artok remains restricted; the cave and the residence site are visited with guides from the communities that hold them.

Feles Cave

The cave on Lelepa where Roi Mata died is a dome-shaped cavern with a ceiling around forty metres high and a narrow entrance above the shore. Its walls carry painted and engraved figures of uncertain date. The cave is reached by boat from Mangaliliu and is visited with guides from Lelepa, who hold the account of what happened in it.

Why the tabu held

Artok was avoided for roughly three and a half centuries — no gardening, no settlement, no casual landing. That a prohibition of that kind survived contact, the labour trade, missionary activity and the Condominium says a good deal about how customary authority actually works, and it is why the deposit was undisturbed when Garanger reached it.

Managing a living site

The World Heritage management plan is unusual in leaving day-to-day decisions with the customary owners rather than a national agency. Guides come from Mangaliliu and Lelepa, fees go to those communities, and the tabu on Artok is enforced by them. It is cited as a model for heritage sites where the custodians are still present.