How it began
Avoiuli was created by Chief Viraleo Boborenvanua of the Turaga indigenous movement in the northern part of Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. He spent fourteen years developing it for the Raga language, and it has been in use since about 1990. The name joins the Raga words avoi, 'talk about', and uli, 'draw' or 'paint'. The script was meant as a native alternative to the Latin alphabet, part of the movement's aim to reduce the island's dependence on outside influences.
Before it existed
The Latin alphabet is the standard for writing on most of Pentecost. Alongside it, the central and northern islands of Vanuatu have a long tradition of sand drawing, which UNESCO describes as a multifunctional 'writing'. A drawer traces one continuous meandering line with a finger on an imagined grid in sand, volcanic ash or clay. The drawings serve as a means of communication among some 80 language groups and as memory aids for rituals, histories, kinship systems and farming techniques. Avoiuli took its letter shapes from these designs.
How it works
Avoiuli has characters equivalent to the letters A to Z, decimal numerals and other symbols, including currency symbols for traditional items of value such as pigs and dyed mats. Like the sand drawings, its letters are designed so that a word can be formed in a single stroke. Most letters are close to symmetrical, so the script can be written left to right or right to left, and it is intended to be written with lines alternating in direction. Capital letters are enlarged forms drawn around a cross-shaped frame.
How it spread
The script is taught at Turaga's school of custom at Lavatmanggemu in north-eastern Pentecost and at affiliated custom schools, where learners pay fees in items such as pigs' tusks and mats. At Lavatmanggemu it appears on posters, schoolwork, financial records, carved stones and graffiti. The Tangbunia Bank, which deals in mats, shells and pig tusks instead of Western currency, keeps its records in Avoiuli. Besides Raga it can be used for Apma, Bislama and English.
Where it stands today
The Atlas of Endangered Alphabets reported in October 2022 that the script had declined in recent years as the Turaga movement faltered in the face of rapid modernization. A few schools on Pentecost still offered courses in it, often alongside sand drawing, but the number of students was falling each year.
