Lying relatively close to New Guinea and mainland Asia, the islands of Vanuatu were settled much earlier than most of the South Pacific islands. The first people probably arrived sometime between 4000-2000 BC and were Austronesian. Later, it seems likely that additional waves of people arrived to the islands, probably from the region of Southeast Asia.
Although little is known about these early people and their culture, they have left behind some clues. The Austronesians moved further east to settle most of the South Pacific, meaning they must have had good boat and navigational knowledge. Their days were likely filled with hunting, gathering, fishing, and limited farming.
Oral traditions also states that they moved from very small local tribal groups to larger political rule under the king Roy Mata. However it seems for most of history the people were united on a small tribal or community scale and they had few large political organizations. Despite this, archeological evidence suggests that they did travel from island to island so communication and trade were common.
Although the Spanish, under Espiritu Santo, and others saw the islands of Vanuatu, and may have even stopped there in 1606, the Europeans didn't make much of an impact until the late 1700s. The culture of the people in Vanuatu changed little with these early explorers as the locals often fought the Spanish on their brief stops, but other than this, seemingly no significant cultural exchanges took place.