History about
Kiribati…
Kiribati was one of the
Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
It lies on the equator south of Hawaii and Marshall Islands. Kiribati was so unique because of its
own history, culture, people, food and their language.
As for the history of
Kiribati, it was beginning in the 18th century when two British
captains, Gilbert and Marshall, discovered the central and northern islands of
the Gilberts group, which they named Gilberts. While the Gilbert Islands group became independent in July
1979. The majority of the coral
islands of both Gilberts and Ellice consist of ring shaped atolls or coral
reefs that surround lagoons. Since
their independence the Ellice group is known as Tuvalu while the Gilberts have
changed to Kiribati – the Republic of Kiribati, headed by a president. <http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati_history/egan22.html>
According to Jane Resture’s Website, it shows more in details about the
whole history of Kiribati which know Gilberts in the 18th century.
Also Kiribati consists of 16
small groups of islands, which are Makin, Tabiteuea Maiaki, Arorae, Beru,
Abaiang, Tamana, Abemama, Onotoa, Nikunau, Tabiteuea Meang, Aranuka, Maiana,
Tarawa, Kuria, Nonouti, and Marakei.
These are only the group of Kiribati Islands and then the other two
group of islands that are part of Kiribati too are the Line and Phoenix Groups
which are Washington, Fanning, Christmas, Malden, Starbuck, Vostok, Caroline ao
ai Flint here the map of these islands:
<http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati_line/index.htm>
Language…
And with their language its
so unique in the way that they don’t use the apathetical letters such as
F, S, X, V, L, P, D, Q, H. They
have interesting vowels and consonants that they combine to form their own
words.
Vowels = A, e, i, o, u
Consonants = M, b, k, r, t,
w
Examples of words using the
vowels and consonants:
Mauri = (aloha) in Hawaii
Amarake = eating
Tekeraoi = good luck
Ko raba = thanks to you
Ko uara = how are you
Matu = sleeping
Mooi = drink
Kukurei = happy
Tamau = my father
Tinau = my mother
And so on…
Examples of sentences:
Ko na nakea neiko? (Where
are you going lady?)
I a kani matu aeee! (Yeah I am so tired!)
To learn more about
Kiribati’s language, visit:
<http://www.janeresture.com/ki33/index.htm>
Culture…
Kiribati was one of the
islands in the whole world that keeps its culture live through out its
generations. Its culture was
taught from generations to generations, through their ways of doing positive
ways that could attract their young ones to learn more easily by imitation or
by respecting their elders.
Some of Kiribati’s
informal (traditions) culture were the skills of building houses, canoes,
fishing, cutting toddy (sap from the coconut immature flower), cooking,
cultivating taro (babai in Kiribati language) and the most formal ones are
building the Maneaba (town hall), composing songs, dancing, marriage (wedding),
and manners/respect.
Jane Restures tells us more
about Kiribati culture
<http://www.janeresture.com/ki33/index.htm>
Food…
<http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati_food/index.htm>
Kiribati has its own food
resource and own ways of preserving their food especially when there is no
rain.
The main types of food that
they have are only source of carbohydrates like taro (babai), Breadfruit (Te
mai), tapioca, pandanus – source of fiber (Te tou) and the coconut. And their only source of protein was
the fish, clams, oysters, and everything in the ocean. The way they preserve their foods was
by drying them in the sun and storing them in closed containers either the ones
from the white people or their weaved baskets from coconut leaves.
They eat by boiling them or
just eating them dry. Also to
maintain the way of having lots and lots of these kinds of food in their homes
was to cultivate their foods like Taro (Te babai) in a special way that would
make the best harvest of the taro.
Taro was one of the most
important foods in Kiribati that counts as money. Why? Because on
special occasions in Kiribati like weddings, birthdays, etc., even though the
family has no money it is very important for the whole Island to see Taro on
the serving table. When there is
no taro, the whole island would think or even say that these families are so
lazy and worthless and poor even though they have thousands and thousands of
dollars in their bank.
The more food you have in
your house, the richer you are.
That’s why Kiribati people in the 1888’s believe that their
children should be taught all kinds of skills from fishing to diving to cooking
to planting/cultivating to talking to weaving etc., instead of sending them to
white people schools where they will learn to read and write.
They believe that household
teaching is more valuable than school because their skills of living and to be
a good housewife who knows how to dry fish and to be a good fishing warrior
should be kept alive from generations to generations.
But since the first arrival
of the first white people everything changed. They found out that by using the fishing net they could
catch lots and lots of fish in one day and by using the clay mixture they could
have finished more than one bowl to put their fish instead of weaving it in
three days for only one basket.
They were mostly attracted
to rice, potatoes, flour, sugar, salt and etc. in which nowadays the local
doctors in Kiribati try to encourage them to stop eating the same thing again
especially the ones with preservatives that result in high blood pressure,
diabetes, laziness, etc. which our elder believe that without sugar our teeth
would last forever even when we are buried for two to three years.
And lastly since Kiribati
was originally coral and atoll islands its soil did not fertile enough for the
all kinds of good vegetables that the white man brings to Kiribati. Its soil was more like a soil with holes
in them which means even though you are lucky enough to have lettuce, tomatoes,
etc., growing it will be harvested into a premature outcomes. This is because when you water your
plant the water just drains down to the water lends but instead of stuck with
the roots of the plants its more like 80% goes down automatically which the sun
dries up the 20% of water in the plant.
Its just like the container
with lots of holes in them and the way the I-Kiribati do the coconut husks, and
rotten stems of plants in the bottom of the garden Bed which soaked up all the
water and holds up to 95% of water in which enable the plants to bare good size
of fruits and leaves that would make more I-Kiribati happy.
Anyway since Kiribati was on
its own nowadays still countries like U.S.A., Australia, NA, and other still
helping Kiribati by educating their generations by giving them scholarships and
funds that would surely would make Kiribati run by its own people who are
graduated as doctors, teachers, etc.
Nowadays these I-Kiribati people then return to Kiribati with new
knowledge where they practiced them in Kiribati and make Kiribati not as a
small country but a happy country.
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© Hawaii Geographic Alliance. July, 2002. All
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