Meaning of Vanuatu
Importance of VanuatuThe Vanuatu coat of arms?
Vanuatu is an islet in the southwest Pacific and is home to a tribe with a wealth of historical and cultural heritage. Vanuatu's first sight of virgin islands in Europe was the discoverer Pedro Fernández de Quiros in 1606. However, it was the notorious English discoverer James Cook who, on his second journey, attracted Europe's interest to the islands and gave them the name New Hebrides.
It was during the latter part of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that Europeans began to settle on the island, and around the turn of the 20th centuries the island was under the common management of the French and Britons. Over the next two centuries, the Indians fought for self-government that eventually resulted in complete autonomy. Full Soviet supremacy was conceded by the French and Britons on 30 July 1980 and the Republic of Vanuatu, as today formally recognized, was founded.
Honorable Walter Hayde Lini, who fought for the islands nation's autonomy, became the first prime minister of Vanuatu. Like every supreme country and every autonomous state, the new Republic of Vanuatu has established its own crest by using an image that carries a profound symbolic meaning for the Ni-Vanuatu population.
The Vanuatu crest shows a Melanesi soldier, more precisely a depiction of Walter Lini, the country's first prime minister. It was Walter Lini who played a decisive role in the independent rule of the Union and proclaimed 30 July, the date on which full supremacy was accorded by the people of France and Britain in 1980, Vanuatu's formal Liberation day.
It is part of the Vanuatu logo, which is also on the country's flags. On the lower part of the crest is a roll with the words "Long God Yumi Stanap", which means "In God we stand" in Vanuatu mother tongue or Bislama, the original one.
These words were first expressed by Walter Lini on 30 July 1980, the first independence of Vanuatu. It was a significant date in which he invited his compatriots to come together as one people. On Pentecost Island in 1942, Walter Hayde Lini was the founder Prime Minister of Vanuatu.
Vanuatu was originally known as the New Hebrides when the French and Brits reigned as a common settlement with different outcomes. He founded the Vanua'aku celebration in 1971. Under Lini's leadership, this Democratical Socialist Republic marched towards self-government and later achieved full autonomy from Britain and France.