Hearing about American climber Alex Honnold scaling the Taipei 101 this past weekend brought back visceral memories of watching land diving in Vanuatu. Netflix added a 10-second delay in case things went sideways. But in our situation, the event was very much live. The sound of the vines cracking was like hearing a heart ripped out from its chest with every leap.

Land diving

Every article you will read about land diving is the same so I will not try to reinvent it. Writing in 2014 for CNN, Ian Lloyd Neubauer writes:

“Every year from April to June, the Vanuatuan island of Pentecost hosts one of the most spectacular and death-defying cultural ceremonies ever conceived.

Known as the Nagol, it sees men climb flimsy 100-foot wooden towers and dive headfirst into empty space, with nothing to break their fall but vines tied their ankles.”

Let the word “conceived” catch your attention. As time wore on, it became harder to ignore signs that if the tourists were not there to pay then land diving would stop.

Queen Elizabeth, February 15, 1974

A French village chief told us that land diving was “brought back to life” after Queen Elizabeth observed it in February 1974. At that time of year, the vines would be brittle. Yet, the event was hosted outside of season, and a man died. Coverage of the event appeared in the news making the event front and center as people sipped their tea and perused at the breakfast table.

Even within season, we were told that at least one or two people die every year. The village chief said that “during the four or five years around COVID” his village did not practice land diving at all. That was why his 12-year old son had got a late start, and had only jumped three times. Young boys begin at lower heights until they work their way up to the tallest strata.

The chief’s implication was that there was no need to practice land diving as there were no paying tourists. But, here were, with no COVID, having paid for tickets to observe land diving on Pentecost Island. The event was on.

Escher family, July 1, 2023

I began my day sitting on some church steps with members of the community waiting for other paying tourists to arrive by air. As I waited, I observed village men wearing t-shirts and shorts, some chatting with friends. The women wore dresses or skirts. The mood was so casual that I had to verify with the chief’s wife that the land diving event was going to go ahead as planned. “Oh, yes,” she said and her eyes sparkled. She used Rick’s phone to call her husband (the chief) and find out where he was.

I spoke to three mothers about how they felt about their boys doing the jumps. All of them said that it was scary. One mother said that she couldn’t let her child know of her fears because it might interfere with his jump so she must show that she supports him.

Arriving at the dive site, I perched on a log on a steep hill and saw the wooden structure in front of me. Soon, I forgot the people I had met in the village. I was a full-on observer. “I can’t believe I’m here,” I said to an Australian tourist. “I heard of this event as a kid. I saw a documentary. It’s hard to believe that I’m actually here to see it for myself.” I sat next to him on a log. He quipped that perhaps I’d make my own documentary. He and his wife had just arrived by plane from Port Vila. After the event, they would make the return trip, have lunch and go snorkeling.

The sound as the vines cracked and a man leapt to land in the sand. Each jump became progressively higher and so the stakes increased.

I felt utterly conflicted.

It was as though I lived in Victorian England and had paid to hold a shrunken head, or watch Egyptian mummies being unwrapped.

The tourists that were brought in by small airplanes arrived to see the land diving event, took pictures, and left. Perhaps they left unaware that this event was a cultural display. The people that are dancing and jumping wear next to nothing at all. Yet, during the rest of the week, they are wearing shorts and t-shirts. They have children. They have schools.

Kennedy, Jumper and modern man

Kennedy was the last person to jump from the highest platform. When a tourist stood to have her photo taken with a land diver named Kennedy, I noticed that he reached out and adjusted the angle of the camera so as to preserve his modesty. His genitals were covered with only a leaf, which is not how he intended to be dressed in the next ten minutes once the plane left.

Competing for Tourist Dollars

Different villages host Nagol events and the competition for tourist dollars is fierce. The event lays bare the French-Anglo tensions that pre-date independence —a relic of the ‘Pandemonium’ era when Britain and France ruled the islands simultaneously.

We didn’t know of the cultural nuances when we agreed to attend a Nagol event at a French village.

Yet, it was quickly laid bare when a woman from the English-speaking community seemed to corral my family and asked us to consider the site in Homo Bay instead. Chatting along with us on a trail to the French village, she said that her Nagol site was taller than the land diving site in the French community. Her interaction with us clearly irritated the French villagers.

Vanuatu gained independence in 1980. And, here we were smack unaware in the heartland of the tension. Vanuatu’s first prime minister, Reverend Father Walter Lini (on the English side) hailed from Pentecost Island. Rick met a man who spoke of needing protection from the French communities as a kid.

At the French village, we were the only cruising boat in attendance. However, kayaking over to the English side, I counted 11 other cruiser boats in Homo Bay. They would have seen land diving in an English-speaking community. n photos, that village appeared prettier, even more overtly touristy. I had assumed our choice was more “authentic.” Perhaps the difference was not authenticity at all, but wealth.

Netflix and why it’s relevant

When Netflix pays a man to climb a tower to attract viewers, we can all point at Netflix and think that’s crazy or unethical. But, you don’t have to be a massive conglomerate to participate in this sort of spectacle. Sometimes you might be just sitting on a log after paying for a ticket and thinking you’ll be witness to an event that you think is purely cultural. But the event is actually purely for you and their safety may pay the price.

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