Sandy Sur is a community leader in Leweton, a small village on the outskirts of Luganville, on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. He founded and directs Leweton Cultural Village, a local cultural tourism enterprise that maintains, promotes, and celebrates the traditional cultural practices of the ni-Vanuatu islands of Gaua and Mere Lava. He also directs the annual Dung Verei Cultural Festival in Vanuatu, and coordinates an ongoing project to document, transmit, and promote the rich cultural knowledge and cultural practices of his community..
Central to Sandy’s understanding of culture is its relationship to the surrounding environment. Water is especially important to life and culture in Leweton. In Sandy’s words, “As it is the connection between human life and the earth, water is sacred.” For Sandy, the cultural practice of Etëtung, or Women’s Water Music, has helped his community convey to outsiders the living nature of water, and its deep connections with human and other life on earth.
For over a decade now, Sandy has travelled internationally, often with members of his community, to participate in festivals, cultural events, artistic residencies, congresses, conferences, and research and policy discussions. Sandy recognizes Etëtung and other cultural practices of his community as a means to promote wider awareness of the ramifications for his small-island Pacific community of the escalating climate crisis. “Government officials think climate change is about sea rise", he says, "but I think it’s about culture, language, way of life.”
