Paper short abstract:

In this paper I explore the relational aesthetics of the sculpture of the taro ship in the 2017 Niel exchange in Tanna by analyzing how the taro ship materializes cosmologies that privilege growing, aesthetics and the cultivation of particular kinds of selves.

Paper long abstract:

In 2017 Tannese islanders from six upland villages sculpted more than 50,000 taro into a large ship for the Niel, a foundational exchange that "feeds" allies, evokes past mobility and equality. The aesthetic power of the ship drew thousands of spectators before and during the exchange. In this Niel ceremony the taro were swapped for yam from six coastal villages. Closely allied, taro and yam are sensitive actors/selves whose lives are entangled in relational worlds of humans and non-humans including magical stones, weather, whales, trees and more. Growing yam and taro is artful work in which gardeners and plants are mutually engaged in promoting growth. Rules and aesthetic practices are attached to all aspects of growing − planting, tending, harvesting, storing and sharing. There is, however, anxiety that such knowledge is now disappearing. Those sculpting the taro ship told me that their art was directed by taro for the ship was designed to "awaken the stones" that coalesce agrarian fertility that cultivates particular kinds of selves. In this paper I ask: How did the taro ship materialize cosmologies that evoke knowledge and practices of growing? How is taro becoming a ship related to growing? How do taro do aesthetics? Does taro becoming a ship encompass a moral economy made visible in the Niel? How do the relational aesthetics of the Niel connect the everyday and the ritual spectacle of the Niel through knowing and doing?