Residents of the "Golden Islands" buy land with seashells
Expo.. Solomon Islands.. Half a million people and 70 languages
Photography: Hanadi Abu Nima
A group of coins displayed in front of a traditional boat used for hunting and war.
The majority of the population of the Solomon Islands are simple families who subsist on fishing.
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90% of the population of the "Solomon Islands", a country in the South Pacific, lives on fishing, clinging to the lands, beliefs and practices they inherited from their ancestors and practices that are still alive in their daily lives, such as the women's industry of shell coins, whose shape and value change according to the region and tribe from which they descend. Of which.
The group of coins, some of which appear in the form of bracelets, necklaces and belts adorning the brides, occupies a large part of the Solomon Islands pavilion in the Opportunities area of the Expo 2020 Dubai site.
At first, the visitor may think that it is just jewelry and artifacts, but the head of the hosts team in the pavilion and the representative of the Department of Tourism, Gerd Borway, explains that it is “a real currency, the value of which is money,” and that it is “used to this day in many parts of the country to barter with much of the money.” Valuable assets, such as land,” a currency known as “malabata” in the province of Shwaziol is used to purchase it.
The western regions of the country also offer money made from "Abu horn" as dowries for marriage.
He added that "traditions in his country necessitate the work of the tribe's women in making these coins, and mastering their weaving for free, but as a symbol of pride in the culture and heritage of the tribe," explaining that women "use stones and primitive tools from metal skewers to polish and shape them, but today they use more advanced tools." In a little while, they invented it themselves.”
He stressed that "90% of the people of the islands are simple and poor, and they live on fishing and bartering, and they are still purity, because they live far away in their villages and have not entered modern life."
The state of the Solomon Islands includes more than 900 islands. It was named after the Spanish explorers, after reaching them in the 16th century, believing that it was the “Land of Gold”, or the site where the legendary King Solomon’s treasure was hidden.
However, many references and research articles, conducted over many decades, denied the validity of this belief.
Borway emphasized that "his country's strategic location, fisheries, and undiscovered gold in its lands represent its most important economic components," adding that "tribal members' adherence to their lands and their refusal to sell them to investing companies prevents the discovery of their stocks of precious metals," referring to the Chinese and American interest in Solomon Islands lands. .
Many of the beliefs and rituals associated with eras dating back to Bismarck's era are still present in the minds of the islanders, such as women's veneration of the fertility statue and their resorting to it to be able to have children.
The statue is displayed in the pavilion to tell of the belief of her family, including the educated, that he is able to give women the ability to have children.
More than 94% of the half-million population of the Solomon Islands is ethnically Melanesian.
They speak 70 languages, and about 96% of the population profess the Christian faith.
The information reveals the importance of living beauty and richness in the biological and cultural diversity that characterizes this country, and its people’s understanding of it as a tool and method for protecting the human spirit and motivating him to create and achieve, in a land whose natural wealth is still virgin.
bosom of the leader
According to popular beliefs in the Solomon Islands, the belly of the tuna was entrusted to preserve the bony remains of the chieftain, who occupies a sacred position.
They embalmed the tuna fish, which is about three meters long, and prepared a house in its hollow, to put its bones inside, believing that they would preserve its survival among them.
• Tribal members' adherence to their lands and their refusal to sell them to the investing companies, prevents the discovery of their precious metal stocks.