Religious Beliefs. Formerly the Ngunese, like people throughout the central part of the archipelago, believed that the god Mauitikitiki had pulled the islands up out of the sea with a rope. Apart from that, he played no known role in relation to everyday life. Numerous lesser spirits were thought to inhabit particular caves, trees, or rocks in the sea, and they could be influenced by a chief or, at his bidding, his religious specialist. In the present, the Ngunese continue to follow Presbyterian Christianity. There are challenges, of course, in the form of minor inroads made by other denominations and, to a degree, by a secular trend in modern ni-Vanuatu society in general. There have also been cargo-cult ideas abroad at different times, but they have never developed into any coherent movement on Nguna.
Religious Practitioners. While sorcery is said to have been rife on Nguna in the past, and some fear remains that it could be revitalized, there is no concrete evidence of such practices today. High chiefs, however, are still believed to be possessed bodily of spiritual powers: for example, it is believed that neither they nor their belongings can be touched safely by people other than their spouses or close family members.
Ceremonies. In the past the naleoana and natamate were the focal ritual activities, the first entailing pig sacrifice and gift exchange, the second centering on dancing before an orchestra of slit gongs, which are hollowed-out logs carved in the image of powerful ancestors and erected on a flat, Ceremonial clearing. Today a first-yams ceremony, annual prestations to high chiefs and the pastor (at least in some villages), investitures of chiefs, and other such ceremonies occur, but they are divested of traditional religious content.
Arts. While pre-Christian ritual dances have disappeared, having been replaced by secular string bands and Westernized dances for young people, what is apparently a traditional form of oral performance (including four different genres of story text) is still widely engaged in and enjoyed.
Medicine. The "diviner" is a shamanic type of healer who uses herbal cures and supernatural messages, which may involve spirit travel during sleep to divine the cause of illness or misfortune. Many Ngunese consult such specialists in addition to making use of the services of a paramedic in the local clinic or traveling to one of Vila's hospitals for more serious matters.
Death and Afterlife. Although now looking toward Heaven as conceptualized in Presbyterian doctrine, the Ngunese once saw death as the beginning of a journey to the spirit world, which began with one's passage under the sea to emerge at Point Tukituki, on the southwest corner of Efate. Leaping from the cliffs into the sea, the spirit had a number of encounters with dangerous spirit beings as it passed through three different worlds, each stage being less familiar and less comfortable than the preceding one. Upon reaching the last, the person lost all contact with the living, in so doing completing his or her descent into nothingness.