Laulasi Island - Tourism

Tourism

A report on the British Solomon Islands dated 1972 states:

"where the traditional process of making shell money and other island activities may be observed, once again proved popular with the tourists".

In 1981 a symposium in the then U.S.S.R heard of Solomon Islands that:

"One of the more successful ventures in the tourist industry is Laulasi Adventure Tours Ltd"

In 1982 a research paper by the Australian National University claimed:

"Laulasi has become one of the notable tourist attractions of the South Pacific – with all the predictable consequences for the integrity of the ancestoral religion and the fabric of community social life. Moreover, the expatriate entrepreneurs were Baha'is, and offered a ready-made religious accommodation between ancestors and capitalism".

In 1997 an author stated:

"Laulasi village, at the centre of the lagoon, makes a business of being nice to visitors. A real business, because it charges more than a Disneyland ticket to tread its man made shores".

In 2006 The Last Heathen by Charles Montgomery concludes that for this he was expecting to find a volatile mixture of the tribal, pagan religion and Christianity. He found a comfortable hybrid instead, the two religions living in harmony.

In November 2008 on an invitation from the Laulasi community a delegation from RAMSI was invited to attend to officiate the "re-opening" of the Laulasi Tourist Industry. Members took footage and photographs with a view of assisting with publicity. The delegation was escorted to the dock with a traditional war canoe trailing and a 10 seat war canoe leading with the latter being Laulasi women singing a traditional welcome song.

On arrival at the dock, warriors confronted the delegation until a sum of shell money was presented to the warriors as a sign of peace. Once this gift was received the village girls offered the delegation refreshments.

The men of the delegation were permitted to tour the three "apartments" that each represented a tribe. In each apartment, the skulls of past priests were laid atop one another. Once this tour concluded, the delegation was presented with a display of song and dance and formalities and a demonstration of the minting process of the shell money. The village women then sang as the delegation sailed away.