Made in Isabel is a project of the Santa Isabel Cultural Heritage Programme supported by the Isabel Council of Chiefs, the Isabel Diocese of the Church of Melanesia and Isabel Province in Solomon Islands. It is a collaboration between Isabel communities, the University of Bergen, the University of Queensland, the Solomon Islands National Museum and the British Museum, to engage Isabellians in a process of recovering and reconstituting cultural heritage that risks being lost.

The project develops from a successful series of community workshops run by the Cultural Heritage Programme since 2010, supported by the University of Bergen. Villagers in four of the Island’s six language areas brought out valuable old artefacts for display and presentation at cultural heritage workshops. Young people engaged with their elders to learn about things still kept as ‘household treasures’ and explore local technologies. Those with access to the internet will now be able to work with an interactive website on Isabel culture that will promote pride in such heritage while providing information to build upon in discussion with their elders and return knowledge to the project.

We are hoping that information obtained in this process, in the future, can contribute to a booklet on Santa Isabels cultural Heritage as well as contribute to a cultural studies curriculum being developed by the Isabel Council of Chiefs with the Isabel Province Education Department.