Tom Navy movement on Tanna

Record summary

The Tom Navy movement on Tanna is associated with a prophetic figure or symbolic persona promising change connected with the sea, foreign power and the return or arrival of desirable goods. It belongs to the postwar period in which Tannese communities reworked Christian teachings, colonial encounters and memories of wartime forces. The lead is relevant to apocalyptic-journey comparisons because movement between the human community, the sea and an anticipated transformed future appears in the surrounding traditions. Accounts vary substantially in naming, dating and interpreting Tom Navy, so local ethnography is essential.