problems

Tackling social, economic problems

TACKLING social, economic,

and health problems is not new to Wan Smol Bag it is in fact the very reason why they were created in the first place. It all started back in 1989, when company Director, Vanuatu resident Englishman

Peter Walker, obtained funding

from the Australian Community Aid Abroad (CAA), which en abled the group to employ five

people full-time.

Their first assignments were on small-scale projects for the Vanuatu ministry of Health the whole concept was to be able to educate the population both in the Vanuatu capital Port-Vila and in the outer

islands by showing short plays.

There was family planning, AIDS,

diarrhea, where every time a mess age had to be got across ... and it did because Wan Smol Bag put it in simple terms and always related to traditional island-style situations that people even in the most remote islands could relate to.

The CAA funding went on for two years. It was replaced in 1990 by an Australian South Pacific Culture Fund (SPCF) grant for another project a longer, more permanent play, called the Vanuatu Show. The purpose was then to collect tra ditional custom tales, to include dances, all this wrapped up in a plot telling the story of Vanuatu, includ ing the first contacts with the Europeans last century.

The show, which was first per formed in front of rural audiences in the outer islands, then settled on a permanent basis in the capital Port Vila to be viewed and acclaimed by locals and visitors alike. Performed in the country’s chiefs Nakamal, it became a permanent feature and an attraction for overseas tourists.

In the meantime, the British

Regional Aid Programme provided

salaries for the group, which had by then extended to ten members.

While performances went on in Port Vila, Wal Smol Bag gained

regional exposure and recognition:

non-governmental organisations

from Fiji and the Solomon islands came last year to Vanuatu to take part in workshops designed to learn how to get their messages across.

They were run by Wan Smol Bag.