Marie M'Balla-Ndi

On being a contemporary taasila: Navigating kastom and ol ting blong waet man

Pacific journalists are faced with many issues, some of which would be familiar to Western journalists, while others are unique to the South Pacific and can be confusing to journalists exclusively educated or trained in the West. The core argument of this paper is that an approach attentive to the cultural context and particularities of South Pacific societies like Vanuatu can enhance our understanding of the challenges faced by contemporary Pacific journalists and allows us to gain a better understanding of these journalists’ activities. ‘On being a contemporary taasila: navigating kastom and ol ting blong waet men’ explores the impact of kastom (ni-Vanuatus customs) on news translation in the archipelago, providing specific examples of how kastom interferes, impacts (perhaps positively or negatively), and influences the processes of news gathering, writing, editing, and news delivery in an attempt to refresh the thin available literature on media and journalism in Vanuatu, giving serious consideration to cultural socio-cultural factors. The impact of re-emerging oceanic epistemologies will be investigated in an attempt to describe how culture in a complex socio-cultural context impacts on ni-Vanuatu journalists’ work on a daily basis.