Laulasi Island - Shell Money

Shell Money

The history of shell-money making in the langa langa lagoon is patchy. Stories retold from myths said that the first person to introduce shell money to the Langalanga lagoon was a woman from Buin in Bougainville. She was banish and floated in a coconut shell from Buin to Guadalcanal and finally to Malaita and landed at Tafilo a village at Lalana near Laulasi. Traditionally, there had been substantive trade between the Langalanga people and people from Buin in shell money until the emergence of the Bougainville crises. Most of the private ship owners from the constituency generated capital through shell money trade to build their ships. They took shell money to Buin and traded it for cash and used the cash to build wooden boats.

As the production rate increased, shell resources were depleted, particularly in Langalanga lagoon. Even in the 1970s some types of shell were rare.

Four different types of shell are used in making shell money, A red lipped rock oyster called Romu (chama pacifica), white shell known as Kee (Beguina semi-orbiculata), black horse mussel shells called Kurila (Atrina vexillum) and thick white disks from a rigid cockle known as Kakadu (Anadara granosa)

What makes this money valuable are the purple disks, whose number per string is carefully calculated and which are made from the lips of the Romu shell which the Langa Langa people collect twice a year from the lagoon areas of the clan of the Lau tribe. The chief of the Lau clan allows them to fish for the shells in exchange for half the money strings.