School Gardens in Vanuatu—Promoting Local Traditional Knowledge and Agricultural Resilience

ABSTRACT

This paper asks how and to what extent school gardening can contribute to the re‐valorisation of local knowledge and practices to decolonise the educational system in the Pacific Island country of Vanuatu. Drawing from an empirical study in five secondary schools on the Islands of Efate and Tanna, in addition to a curriculum analysis and participatory observation, our data show that a large majority of the students work regularly in school gardens and grow manioc/cassava, taro, tomatoes, cabbage and other tubers and vegetables, in mixed cropping and with fallow land. They are very familiar with the seasonal calendar of yam, which may have been learned in their home environment. While sustainability topics are mentioned in school curricula, discussion of traditional worldviews and spiritual relations to nature is lacking. School gardening enhances agricultural resilience, connection to land and kastom and food sovereignty in a country shaped by cultural diversity and exposed to natural hazards. We therefore recommend a stronger inclusion of local knowledge in schooling, the promotion of field trips to foster the connection to the environment and a collaboration with kastom schools, in order to radically reform the educational system.