Traditional culture

In the traditional culture of the Solomon Islands, age-old customs are handed down from one generation to the next, allegedly from the ancestral spirits themselves, to form the cultural values to Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

. Culturally, the Solomon Islands are a part of Melanesia

Melanesia

Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...

, and the indigenous peoples are Melanesians.

Contemporary culture

In the contemporary Solomon Islands, as elsewhere in Melanesia, kastom is the core of the assertion of traditional values and cultural practices in a modern context. The Kastom Gaden Association, for example, advocates growing and eating traditional foods rather than imported ones.

Languages

There are at least 64 languages in the Solomon Islands, not counting English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and Pijin. The Islands' languages are part of the great diversity of the Austronesian languages

Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...

 of Melanesia.

Notable figures

Notable figures in contemporary Solomon Islands culture include painter Ake Lianga

Ake Lianga

Ake Lianga is a Solomon Islands screen printer and painter, who has "gained recognition for paintings and murals throughout Oceania".After schooling, Lianga became self-employed as a sign painter and mural artist...

 and musician Sharzy

Sharzy

Sammy Saeni is a musician from Solomon Islands.Sharzy was born on the island of Simbo in the Western Province. His mother is from Simbo and his father from Malaita. His musical career began in 1995 when he joined the 2-4-1 band. He produced his first solo album "Aloha" in 2001, which became an...

. Writers include John Saunana and Celo Kulagoe.

See also

• Music of the Solomon Islands
  Music of the Solomon Islands
  The music of the Solomon Islands has received international attention since before the country became independent from the United Kingdom in 1978.-Folk music:...
  
  
• Literature of the Solomon Islands
  Literature of the Solomon Islands
  Solomon Islands literature is diverse. The emergence of Solomon Islands written literature took place in the context of the development of indigenous Pacific Islander literature in the Pacific region as a whole, beginning in the late 1960s...
  
  
• Languages of the Solomon Islands
• Religion in the Solomon Islands
  Religion in the Solomon Islands
  In the Solomon Islands approximately 92.0 percent of the population is affiliated with one of the following Christian churches: Anglican, 35 percent; Roman Catholic, 19 percent; South Seas Evangelical, 17 percent; Methodist, 11 percent; and Seventh-day Adventist, 10 percent...