IOM – Traditional Architecture

Littlebylittle’s Post-cyclone Pam campaign for Public Works Vanuatu, National Disaster Management Office, Shelter Cluster in collaboration with IOM United Nation’s International Organization for Migration and European Union.

Promoting Vanuatu traditional architecture in the making, involving women, community at large, knowledge and management of natural resources and above all, a philosophy of life.

IOM-HAOS-KOMUNITI

To build a good house you need the whole community.

“All men and women help to build a house. This makes our community bond and think about our common future”.

IOM-HAOS-KASTOM

To build a good house you need traditional knowledge.

“Your first house is your Mother’s belly. Your last house is the Earth. When you’re an adult, it would be good for you to build a house that is good and alive like your mother and strong like the Earth”.

IOM-HAOS-TREES-haos-on-top

To build a good house you need a flower.

“To make a house you need wood. To make wood you need a tree. To make a tree you need a seed. To make a seed you need a fruit. To make a fruit you need a flower : to make a house you need a flower”.

IOM-HAOS-STAMPA

To build a good house you need grass-root knowledge.

“If a cyclone comes, we are safe because our community builds our houses with grass-root knowledge. They make the foundations, connections, perling, rafters and bracings the right way”.

IOM-HAOS-MAMAS

To build a good house you need all the mothers.

“We are the mothers.  We weave our houses’ roofs, walls and mats. Our work has all kinds of styles from our different islands and that makes our culture alive and our houses beautiful”.