Is it Just a Dress? By Sarah Schra

 Aelan dres ("Island Dress") aka Mama Dress: Puffed sleeves, high princess neckline that opens into a shapeless bell of fabric, with side panels sewn on at the waist to hide the shape of the woman's hips.

The Island Dress was originally introduced locally as the Mother Hubbard by white missionaries as a way to encourage island women to dress in a more modern and chaste way, according to western standards.  First copied from a nightgown belonging to a white presbyterian missionary, the Island Dress, now called a Mama dress, has evolved into a colorful and sometimes ornate symbol of Vanuatu identity. When Vanuatu finally declared independence from joint French and English rule in 1980, it was important for this country made up of over 80 islands to form a unified national identity. The Mama dress became a representation of the relationship between Melanesian identity, Christianity, and Vanuatu cultural heritage and tradition otherwise known as kastom. "The face of Vanuatu is that of the mama (mother)—the married, visibly Melanesian, church-going, village-dwelling mother who is respectful of both kastom and Christian (most often male) authority."[1]

In this way, the Mama dress has become the required uniform of the ni Vanuatu mother, and younger women are usually required to wear them when in their villages, at church, or when attending other traditional events. Some chiefs impose a fine if a woman does not wear the Mama dress at designated times. The women who came to clean our lodgings arrived at the villas in their Mama dresses, changed into knit skirts and T-shirts to clean, and then changed back into their Mama dresses when they left to return home at the end of each day.

The purpose of our trip into town today was two-fold. We were planning to pick out fabric for our graduation stoles, and some of us were looking at either purchasing a mama dress pre-made, or purchasing fabric and having one custom-made. Knowing this was part of our planned itinerary while in Vanuatu, I had been thinking long and hard about whether I wanted a Mama dress. Initially my concern was cultural appropriation, but the ni Vanuatu seemed pleased to see visitors adopting their form of dress. We were also planning to meet with the council of chiefs, and for that meeting, the women in our group would need to dress in a culturally respectful manner - a Mama dress being the most appropriate. However, beyond the national identity of the Mama dress is an element of subversion of women's rights . . . the expectation of chastity, of submission to the authority of their husband, church, and chief no matter the individual cost.  Domestic violence against women is a significant issue in Vanuatu, largely because of the position of women in the Vanuatu caste system.  The only person lower in the caste system is a female child. When a couple is married, it is traditional for the husband's family to give the wife's family a collection of hand-woven mats, pigs, vegetables, etc., and sometimes cash - all considered the wife's "bride price." While not all vi Vanuatu continue this custom, it is common practice and many ni Vanuatu men interpret this practice as "purchasing" their wife. The wife's Mama dress uniform then becomes a symbol of her purchased status. For all of these reasons, I wanted to find a way to respect the chiefs and support the local seamstresses without getting a traditional Mama dress.  

Elise found a woman named Rosie who sews simple sarong-style dresses that can be worn three different ways. She makes them for tourists - I never saw an island woman wearing anything similar - but I wanted to give her my business and so we picked out fabric and had Rosie sew us custom sarong dresses. Jana and Emily also had them made. As you can see from the photos, Rosie is wearing the traditional Mama dress - contrasting fabric/lace around the high neckline, puffed sleeves, and side panels sewn on at the waist, also trimmed with lace.

I also found a pre-made dress made by another one of the seamstresses that was "Vanuatu modest" but without the lace, puffed sleeves, and side panels of the traditional Mama dress. When I wore my "Vanuatu modest" dress the following day, the women who work at our lodgings complimented me (a first), and I felt like the other people we met in town treated me with slightly more respect than when I had worn shorts or overalls into town.

Some younger women on the island struggle with the traditional dress, and feel confined by the archaic ideal of womanhood and submission to a patriarchal system that the dress represents.  The T-shirt below is from a feminist organization in Vanuatu called Sista (https://www.sista.com.vu/) who are working to empower women in Vanuatu.

The dress is hot. There is a lot of fabric, and although there is a slight breeze that comes up from the bottom, the sleeves and weight of all the folds is a bit stifling in the hot humid weather. Most younger women we saw in town wore long board shorts and tee-shirts. Almost every older woman wore a Mama dress. Some women have reported that the risk of being sexually assaulted also makes the dress undesirable - some wear shorts or a full one-piece swimsuit under their Mama dress in order to impede sexual contact from undesired partners. 

One of the ni Vanuatu women we spoke to from Melee, just outside of Port Vila, mentioned that the cost of living increases on the island, combined with the cost of fabric and seamstress labor make obtaining an island dress a costly proposition. For younger women who are unemployed or without means, the requirement that they be modestly attired in the traditional Mama dress is an unfair obligation that prevents impoverished women from achieving respect and reception into traditional Vanuatu society.

As the Island continues to embrace tourism, I suspect that the attachment to the Mama dress will only strengthen as a way of holding onto Vanuatu's national identity. However, for the sake of future generations of ni Vanuatu women I hope that they are only required to wear the Mama dress on special occasions, and not as an everyday uniform.

After our day in town, we had a very late lunch at a restaurant a few miles from our home base and then a few of us walked back in lieu of taking the bus.

We took a short detour to check out Honeymoon Beach, a place the locals and tourists alike come to swim and enjoy.

And as a perfect end to the day, we were greeted by a rainbow on the way home.

[1] Maggie Cummings, Looking Good: The Cultural Politics of the Island Dress for Young Women in Vanuatu, Dec. 31, 2012, Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa.