This paper discusses the revival and performance of cultural tradition
s and 'ethnic lives' for a tourist audience in the third and fourth wo
rlds using the example of a newly emergent development on Wala island,
Malekula, Vanuatu. It examines issues of the commodification and obje
ctification of culture, in the light of debates about the 'invention o
f tradition', in relation to a global tourist industry. A major concer
n is with the politics and values involved in an active appropriation
on the part of indigenous populations of their past and how this might
relate to a notion of authenticity in the context of a Melanesian cul
ture.