Tanna (sometimes misspelled Tana) is an island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu.
Name
The name Tanna, first cited by James Cook, is derived from the word tana in the Kwamera language, meaning "earth". Etymologically, Tanna goes back to Proto-Oceanic *tanoq, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taneq, with the same meaning.
Geography
Tanna is long and wide, with a total area of . Its highest point is the summit of Mount Tukosmera in the south of the island.
Siwi Lake was located in the east, northeast of the peak, close to the coast until mid-April 2000 when following unusually heavy rain, the lake burst down the valley into Sulphur Bay, destroying the village with no loss of life. Mount Yasur is an accessible active volcano which is located on the southeast coast.
History
Tanna was first settled about 400 BC by Melanesians from the surrounding islands. The glowing light of Mount Yasur attracted James Cook, the first European to visit the island, in August 1774, where he landed in an inlet on the southeastern tip of the island that he named Port Resolution after his ship HMS Resolution.
In the 19th century, traders and missionaries (chiefly Presbyterian) arrived. The Tannese stuck to their traditions more strongly than other islands; there remain fewer Christians in comparison with the other islands of Vanuatu. Whaling vessels were some of the first regular visitors to the island in the 19th century. The first on record was the Rose in February 1804. The last known such visit was by the Sea Ranger in September 1871. Tanna was not a principal site of World War II, but about 1,000 people from Tanna were recruited to work on the American military base on Éfaté. Exposure to First World living standards may have led to the development of cargo cults. Many have died out, but the John Frum cult remains strong on Tanna today, especially at Sulphur Bay in the southeast and Green Point in the southwest of the Island. The documentary Waiting for John (2015) by Jessica Sherry provides a history and overview of the current scene regarding these beliefs.
A secessionist movement began in the 1970s, and the Nation of Tanna was proclaimed on 24 March 1974. While the British were more open to allowing its holdings in Vanuatu to achieve independence, it was opposed by the French colonists and finally suppressed by the Anglo-French Condominium authorities on 29 June 1974. In 1980, there was another attempt to secede, declaring the Tafea Nation on 1 January 1980, its name coming from the initials of the five islands that were to be part of the nation (Tanna, Aniwa, Futuna, Erromango and Aneityum). British forces intervened on 26 May 1980, allowing the island to become part of the newly independent nation of Vanuatu on 30 July 1980.
Tanna and nearby Erromango were devastated by Cyclone Pam in March 2015, with reports of an unknown number of deaths, complete destruction of the island’s infrastructure and permanent shelters, and no drinking water. Following this, an El Niño-spurred drought further impacted on the people of Tanna.
Culture and economy
Population
It is the most populous island in Tafea Province, and one of the most populous islands in the country with a population of about 29,000 in 2009, wich grew to 30,770 in 2015. Isangel, the provincial administrative capital, is on the west coast near the island's largest town of Lénakel. Tanna is populated almost entirely by Melanesians, and they follow a more traditional lifestyle than many other islands. Some of the higher altitude villages are known as kastom villages, where modern inventions are restricted, the inhabitants wear penis sheaths () and grass skirts, and the children do not go to public school. According to anthropologist Joël Bonnemaison, author of "The Tree and the Canoe: history and ethnography of Tanna," their resistance to change derives from their traditional worldview and how they "perceive, internalise, and account for the dual concepts of space and time."
Cargo cults
The island is the centre of the John Frum religious movement, which attracts tourist interest as a cargo cult. The first John appeared at night as a spirit at a place called Green Point beach and told the people to return to their traditional way of life, or kastom. From that time kastom on Tanna has been seen as an alternative to the modernity encouraged by many missionary denominations.