Nakamal

A nakamal is the traditional meeting place of chiefs in Vanuatu, used for meetings on governance, decision-making and teaching. It is central to kastom, the body of customary practice; one local saying holds that without the nakamal there is no place to house kastom. Nakamals are roofed buildings made from local materials, and in rural areas they are often described as hurricane shelters, being believed, on anecdotal evidence, to have been designed to resist high winds and cyclones.

Materials and skills

The built form depends on knowledge and skills held within each community and passed between generations. Across Vanuatu, the main traditional roof covering is natangura, thatch made from sago-palm leaves (see sago palm thatch); in the 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, natangura was recorded on 41.7% of main houses.

Cyclone Pam

Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam crossed Vanuatu on 13 March 2015 and destroyed large quantities of traditional building materials. Together with an El Niño drought that prevented new plantings, it left communities short of the materials needed to repair nakamals.

In response, UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund supported a project from August to December 2015 (US$23,908) to safeguard indigenous vernacular architecture. It documented six damaged nakamals before and after the cyclone, assessed their structural condition, and evaluated the risk of losing the building knowledge held in each community, with the aim of compiling good practice for reviving building skills.

Threats

Identified threats include imported building materials and techniques, lack of heritage recognition, shortages of local materials, loss of skills across generations, future cyclones and lack of funding for urgent protection.

Related forms

The nakamal belongs to a Pacific family of community meeting houses that includes the Fijian bure, the Kiribati maneaba and the Samoan fale tele.

Sources and gaps

Detailed published descriptions of nakamal construction are scarce.