ABSTRACT
Customary land is an important aspect of people’s lives in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. It supplies the basic needs for survival because it is the source of their subsistence. Also, the land has a social and spiritual significance because people’s social relationships and interconnectedness are centred on the land where their ancestors were buried (see Arutangai 1987; Van Trease 1987; Burt 1994; Boydell 2001). Therefore, land is valuable to the people and should not, and could not, be sold. It is a social product which is not commodified under custom (Rodman 1995: 84).
