Solomon Islands
Langa Langa Lagoon
Islands built by hand from coral, where shell money still settles a marriage or a dispute.
Coral rubble, carried and placed by hand, rises into inhabited islands across Langa Langa Lagoon. Canoes pass workshops where shell is cut, drilled and strung into wealth that still matters in exchange, ceremony and community life.
The lagoon beside Auki on Malaita is lined with islands built by hand to put water between their people and the raiding on the mainland shore, and they are still lived on. Its workshops cut, drill and string shell into money that continues to carry customary weight in gifts, bride price and the settling of disputes. The Shell Money Festival at Busu Cultural Village, held most Augusts since 2014, opens the craft to visitors directly. Outside the festival, canoe trips and workshop visits go through a host, because these islands are homes.
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Solo
A host arranges the canoe and the introductions, which is the whole trip here. Alone you can spend an afternoon watching shell being ground and drilled with nobody waiting on you.
Couple
Paddling between the built islands takes a morning and costs almost nothing, and festival time in August is when the whole lagoon turns out at once.
Family
Children take to the canoes straight away, and watching money being made out of shells lands far better than any museum case.
Friends
The August festival is the reason to time a group trip, and a shared canoe covers much more of the lagoon than one village visit.
- The islands were built by hand, coral block on coral block, to put water between their builders and mainland raiders, and people still live on them.
- The shell money made here, tafuliae, is still used for gifts, bride price and the settling of disputes rather than sold as a souvenir.
- The Shell Money Festival at Busu Cultural Village has run most Augusts since 2014, two days of demonstrations, canoe races and bride-price ceremony.
- The artificial islands are homes, so canoe trips and workshop visits are arranged through a host.
Community food stalls at the Busu Cultural Centre during the August shell-money festival, eaten beside the craft demonstrations.
Lagoon-caught fish with taro grown on Malaita, the ordinary plate around Auki.
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