A Source of Power, Disquiet and Biblical Purport: The Jordan River in Santo, Vanuatu

Abstract

The Jordan River, on the island of Espíritu Santo, is the largest river in the Vanuatu archipelago.1 It was originally given that name 400 years ago by a foreigner, Iberian navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós, the first of many outlanders who have since engaged with the people and environments that coexist with this body of flowing water. Of course, contemporary Santo Islanders have their own names for this river, as well as for the specific tributaries that give form to its drainage basin. The rugged geography over which this basin extends is located within a broader, geographically complex region of North Santo. This territory, to whose description I return below, is host to a rich diversity of ni-Vanuatu communities, language groups and storied places.2 Importantly, this is