Lukim yu, Mungau

Sunday, January 13, 2019

I was astonished, and saddened, to see an obituary for Mungau Dain in today’s NYTimes. He was Ni-Vanuatu from Tanna Island, starred in the film Tanna.

Mungau was young, and died from an infected wound. And he was in the capital, which has the best health care in the country. “Mr. Dain had traveled to Port-Vila because he was seeking work as a fruit picker in Australia or New Zealand.”

The geographer Kirstie Petrou has published a number of research interesting articles about urban-rural migration in Vanuatu, as well as what happens to Ni-Vanuatu when they go to Australia and New Zealand to work in the orchards.