“The ancestor watches through the mask; the dancer only lends his feet.”
A person performing sacred ceremony acts as a vessel for ancestral presence, and should carry that role with humility rather than pride.
— Traditional Vanuatu Wisdom, Vanuatu
Source: Traditional ni-Vanuatu proverb, Melanesian kastom oral tradition, public-domain
More Proverbs from Vanuatu
The wantok who eats alone today will hunger alone tomorrow.
Those who refuse to share within their community lose that community's support when they themselves are in need.
A canoe paddled by many hands reaches the reef before the storm.
Cooperative effort accomplishes what individual effort alone cannot, especially in the face of danger.
Land does not belong to one man; it belongs to the grandchildren not yet born.
Customary land is held in trust for future generations, not owned outright by any single living person.
Kastom is the root; the leaf that forgets the root will wither.
A person who abandons traditional custom loses the source of their strength and identity.
The chief who forgets his people will one day find no one behind him.
Leadership in kastom society depends on the ongoing consent and support of the community, not on title alone.
The sea gives to those who respect it, and takes from those who do not.
Careless disregard for nature and its taboos brings misfortune, while respect for it brings sustenance.