Vanuatu Independence Day

Today celebrates the independence of Vanuatu which was declared on 30th July 1980. It was previously called New Hebrides, and was controlled by the French and British. In the 1970s an independence movement rose, with political policies forming to advocate for the Indigenous land rights of the people. It gained its independence under the leadership of Father Walter Lini and the Vanua’aku Pati and was named Vanuatu, the name coming from two local words meaning ‘home’ and ‘stand’.