Resisting disasters: subsistence gardens in Vanuatu

Dr. Maëlle CALANDRA

Abstract:
Based on ethnographic data collected between 2011 and 2018 on Tongoa island (Central Vanuatu, South Pacific), this presentation seeks to highlight the singularity of the local horticulture in the context of Vanuatu. This archipelago is known for being particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and is commonly exposed to large environmental hazards (landslides, volcanic eruptions, cyclones and droughts). The frequent occurrence of these devastating disasters is reflected in relevant international rankings. As in previous years, it appears as the country with the highest disaster risk worldwide. However, the local population has earned to live in this environment, and they have developed specific knowledge and coping strategies reflected, among others, in the architecture of their so-called “traditional” houses and their agriculture. Here, I wish to illustrate how inhabitants anticipate destroying events through daily practices rooted in a careful reading of their environment. I will present the different types of gardens encountered in Tongoa and also hope to offer insights on why they provide locally the threshold with which to measure and define disasters.

Bio:
She completed a PhD in socio-cultural anthropology in 2017 at EHESS, supervised by Pr. Philippe Descola and Pr. Pierre Lemonnier. She has been awarded the best doctoral dissertation for the year 2018 by the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac and and by THESE-PAC for the best thesis on the South Pacific. She is presently a postdoctoral fellow at the International Research Centre of Disaster Science and Sustainable Development, and a research associate at CREDO (UMR 7308). She specialises in Pacific societies, particularly in rural Vanuatu. Her work sits at the nexus of theorisations of disaster, humanitarian aid and forced migrations.

URL :
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maelle-Calandra (research gate page)
- https://www.lapsco.fr/calandra-maelle.html (lab personal webpage)