Adele Zubrzycka

Remaining healthy was a major consideration for both indigenous and European peoples in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) during early contact. While local communities were often devastated by introduced disease, new missionaries sought practical ways to overcome the impact of tropical ailments that they considered to undermine the effectiveness of their activities. From the early 1850s onwards, Presbyterian missionaries in the southern New Hebrides began to construct 'healthy' homes, of which the surviving masonry mission house at Anelcauhat, Aneityum (1852-3) forms the earliest standing example. This paper draws on the results of both above-and in-ground archaeological recording to examine how the surviving structure reflects nineteenth-century ideas about illness and well-being before discussing the wider trajectory of such house construction, and associated matters connected with local communities, health and architecture that potentially impacted on missionary endeavour.

The 1853 stone house of Presbyterian missionaries Reverend John (also known as Misi Gete) and Charlotte Geddie is located in Anelcauhat village, Aneityum, the southernmost inhabited island of Vanuatu. In 2012 and 2013 archaeological investigations took place in and around the dwelling, the oldest standing colonial building in Vanuatu and one of the oldest in Melanesia. Excavations revealed shallow in-ground foundations and functional construction and architectural details. Results highlighted ways in which the Geddies were forced to adapt to their environment while also creating a ‘civilised’ domestic space that would support their work of converting the Aneityumese population to Christianity. Comparison with other mission sites in Vanuatu suggests that architectural designs, construction methods and philosophies varied in at least some of their aspects from station to station, often developing from individual domestic needs and objectives, and the specific chronological, economic and social context in which they occurred.