# Cargo Cults · The Canon · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/canon/cargo-cults/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Canon · No. 109
Cargo Cults
Melanesian millenarian movements; the John Frum movement
c.1885 / 1940s CE – present · Indigenous / Folk · Living · Melanesia — Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji
VIII. POSTWAR & CONTEMPORARY — 1945 – PRESENT
### How many
### Who began it
### What it is for
### What it worships
### What it holds
### What it does
### After death
### Its texts
### Its branches
### Of note
### Its timeline
- c.1885–1919 CE Early movements: the Tuka movement in Fiji; the Vailala Madness in Papua in 1919.
- c.1940 CE John Frum appears in accounts on Tanna, telling islanders to abandon the missions and return to custom.
- <strong>1942–45 CE</strong> The Pacific War. Around 300,000 American troops pass through the New Hebrides. Islanders see enormous quantities of material unloaded, and see Black American servicemen with the same goods and the same authority as white ones — which demolished the colonial claim that the difference was racial. The movements intensify sharply.
- 1945–57 CE The troops leave, taking or dumping the cargo. British and French authorities imprison John Frum leaders.
- 1957 CE The John Frum movement formalises; 15 February becomes John Frum Day.
- 1974 CE Prince Philip and the Queen visit; the Prince Philip Movement on Tanna is formalised around him.
- 1980 CE Vanuatu becomes independent; John Frum becomes a recognised political and religious body with seats in parliament.
- 2021 CE Prince Philip dies; the Tanna villages hold mourning ceremonies and, in some accounts, transfer their expectations to his son.
### Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.
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