Aelan Gel/Island Daughters: Co-creative Storytelling of Place and Resilience with Women in Vanuatu.

Through reflections on the Aelan Gel project in Vanuatu, this paper examines expressions of meaning related to the lived experiences of urban women in Port Vila, including experiences of gender-based violence, through oral history and storytelling. It explores Aelan Gels iterative cycles of creative production: the drawing out of the specifics of lived experience through the sharing of autobiographical narratives; working collectively with these stories to co-create site-specific socially engaged performance; and gener ating a collective text intended to take a more enduring place in the literary and cultural history of women in Vanuatu. The authors consider the role of place as both a character and topic in the autobiographical and collective stories told in this project, as well as a site for cultural action and social intervention strategically chosen to enhance the meaning and potency of womens experiences and voices.