I-Kiribati

## Country of Origin

Kiribati: 103,000Historical Diaspora: 17,000

## Religion or Spirituality

Roman Catholicism and Kiribati Uniting Church together equal 89%

## Date When Land Was Settled

During the Austronesian migration 5000 years ago. (3000 BCE)

## Related Ethnic Groups

Austronesians Micronesians

The **I-Kiribati** (/ˌɪ'kɪrɪˈbæs/), are an independent island people also known as the **Gilbertese** or **I-Tungaru** in the central Pacific Ocean. Kiribati gained its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a sovereign state in 1979. The capital, South Tarawa, now the most populated area, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa atoll. Prior to its independence, the country had exported phosphate; however, those mines are no longer viable with fisheries and export of copra driving much of the economy. Kiribati is one of the least developed countries in the world and is highly dependent on international aid for its economy.

Kiribati is a member of the Pacific Community (SPC), Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF, the World Bank, the OACPS and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999 and also a member of the Pacific Islands Forum. As an island nation, the islands are very vulnerable to climate change and addressing climate change has been a central part of its international policy, as a member of the Alliance of Small Island States.

The pronunciation differs: /ˌkɪrɪˈbæs, -ˈbɑːti/; *Kiribass* is the normal pronunciation as *-ti* in the Gilbertese language represents an *s* sound.

The name *Kiribati* was adopted in 1979 at independence. It is the Gilbertese rendition of *Gilberts*, the plural of the English name of the nation's main archipelago, the *Gilbert Islands*. It was named *îles Gilbert* (French for *Gilbert Islands*) in about 1820 by Russian admiral Adam von Krusenstern and French captain Louis Duperrey, after the British captain Thomas Gilbert.

It is often suggested that the indigenous name for the Gilbert Islands proper is *Tungaru* (see e.g., Ernest Sabatier [fr], 1952–1953, or Arthur Grimble, 1989). However, the rendition Kiribati for Gilberts was chosen as the official name of the new independent nation by the Chief Minister, Sir Ieremia Tabai and his Cabinet, on such grounds that it was modern, and to comprehend the inclusion of outer islands (e.g., the Phoenix Group and Line Islands), which were not considered part of the Tungaru (or Gilberts) chain.

## History (Rongorongona)

### Pre-Colonial Tungaru (Tungaru Imwain Korone)

The area now called Kiribati, mainly the 16 Gilbert Islands, has been inhabited by Austronesian peoples speaking the same Oceanic language, from North to South, including the southernmost Nui, since sometime between 3000 BC and AD 1300. The area was not completely isolated; later, voyagers from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji introduced some Polynesian and Melanesian cultural aspects, respectively. Intermarriage and intense navigation between the islands tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation. Local oral historians chiefly in the form of lore keepers suggest that the area was first inhabited by a group of seafaring people from Melanesia, who were described as being dark skinned, frizzy haired and short in stature. These indigenous peoples were then visited by early Austronesian seafarers from the west, a place called *Matang*, orally described as being tall and fair skinned. Eventually, both groups intermittently clashed and intermingled until they slowly became a uniform population.

Around 1300 A.D, there was a mass exodus from Samoa at the same time that cannibalism was forcefully abolished there, leading to the addition of Polynesian ancestry into the mix of most Gilbertese people. These Samoans would later bring strong features of Polynesian languages and culture, creating clans based on their own Samoan traditions and slowly intertwining with the indigenous clans and powers already dominant in Kiribati.

Around the 15th century, starkly contrasting systems of governance arose between the Northern Islands, primarily under chiefly rule (*uea*), and the Central and Southern Islands, primarily under the rule of their council of elders (*unimwaane*). Tabiteuea could be an exception as the sole island that is known as maintaining a traditional egalitarian society. The name Tabiteuea stems from the root phrase Tabu-te-Uea meaning "chiefs are forbidden".

Civil war soon became a factor, with acquisition of land being the main form of conquest. Clans and chiefs began fighting over resources, fuelled by hatred and reignited blood feuds, which may have started months, years, or even decades before.

The turmoil lasted well into the European visitation and colonial era, which led to certain islands decimating their foes with the help of guns and cannon-equipped ships that some Europeans were coerced into using by the more cunning and persuasive among the I-Kiribati leaders.

The typical military arms of the I-Kiribati at this time were shark-tooth-embedded wooden spears, knives and swords, and garbs of armour fashioned from dense coconut fibre. They chiefly used these instead of the gunpowder and weapons of steel available at the time, because of the strong sentimental value of the equipment handed down through generations. Ranged weapons, such as bows, slings and javelins, were seldom used; hand-to-hand combat was a prominent skill still practised today, though seldom mentioned because of various taboos associated with it, secrecy being the primary one.

Abemama's High Chief Tembinok' was the last of the dozens of expansionist Chiefs of Gilbert Islands of this period, despite Abemama historically conforming to the traditional Southern Island's governance of their respective "*unimwaane*". He was immortalised in Robert Louis Stevenson's book *In the South Seas*, which delved into the High Chief's character and method of rule during Stevenson's stay in Abemama. The 90th anniversary of his arrival in the Gilbert Islands was chosen to celebrate the independence of Kiribati on 12 July 1979.

### Europeans Arrive (E Mai Eurobe)

Chance visits by European ships occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, while those ships attempted circumnavigations of the world, or sought sailing routes from the south to north Pacific Ocean. A passing trade, whaling the On-The-Line grounds, and labour ships associated with blackbirding of Kanakas workers, visited the islands in large numbers during the 19th century, with social, economic, political, religious and cultural consequences. More than 9,000 workers were sent abroad from 1845 to 1895, most of them not returning.

The passing trade gave rise to European, Chinese, Samoan and other residents from the 1830s: they included beachcombers, castaways, traders and missionaries.

### British Colony (Korone Buritan)

In an effort to restore a measure of order, the Gilbert Islands and the neighboring Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) were declared as the British Protectorate by Captain E.H.M. Davis of HMS *Royalist* (1883) on 27 May 1892.

The British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) were administered by a High Commissioner resident in Fiji until 1952, then in Honiara. A Resident Commissioner, Charles Swayne, was appointed in 1893 following the protectorate on the Gilbert group and on the Ellice group becoming formal and effective in 1892. The protectorate's headquarters was established on Tarawa in 1896, where Resident Commissioner William Telfer Campbell presided from 1896 until 1908. The headquarters were then moved to Ocean Island (now Banaba), and continued upon the transition to a Crown Colony. This move in headquarters arose from the operations of the Pacific Phosphate Company resulting in good shipping connections to Ocean Island, and in any case the role of the British colonial authorities emphasised the procurement of labour for the mining and shipping of phosphate and keeping order among the workers.

Ocean Island (now Banaba) was included in the protectorate in 1900 and then in the colony in 1916. In the same year, Fanning Island and Washington Island were included in it together with the islands of the Union Islands (now Tokelau).

In 1916, the administration of the BWTP changed as the islands became a Crown Colony on 12 January 1916. But the new colony remained under the jurisdiction of BWTP until 1971.

The islands became a Crown Colony on 12 January 1916 by the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Order in Council, 1915. Christmas Island was included in the colony in 1919 although it was contested by the U.S. under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. The Union Islands were unofficially transferred to New Zealand administration in 1926 and officially in 1948. The Phoenix Islands were added in 1937 and the five islands of the Central and Southern Line Islands were added in 1972.

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony continued to be administered by a Resident Commissioner. One very famous colonial officer in the colony was Sir Arthur Grimble (1888–1956), at first as a cadet officer in 1914, under Edward Carlyon Eliot who was Resident Commissioner of the BWPT then the colony from 1913 to 1920. This period is described in Eliot's book "Broken Atoms" (autobiographical reminiscences) (Pub. G. Bles, London, 1938) and in Sir Arthur Grimble's "A Pattern of Islands" (Pub. John Murray, London, 1952). Arthur Grimble became the Resident Commissioner of the colony in 1926. In 1930 Grimble, issued revised laws, *Regulations for the good Order and Cleanliness of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands*, which replaced laws created during the BWPT.

Ocean Island remained the headquarters of the colony until the British evacuation in 1942 because of the Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands. After World War II, the colony headquarters was re-established on Tarawa, first on Betio islet (then occupied by American forces following the Battle for Tarawa) and subsequently on Bairiki.

### Modern Times (Boong Aikai)

Japan seized part of the islands during World War II to form part of their island defenses. On 20 November 1943, Allied forces threw themselves against Japanese positions at Tarawa and Makin in the Gilberts, resulting in some of the bloodiest fighting of the Pacific campaign. The Battle of Tarawa and the Battle of Makin (in fact Butaritari) were a major turning point in the war for the Allies, which battles were the implementation of "Operation Galvanic".

The formation of the United Nations Organisation after World War II resulted in the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization committing to a process of decolonisation; as a consequence the British colonies in the Pacific started on a path to self-determination.

As a consequence of the 1974 Ellice Islands self-determination referendum, separation occurred in two stages. The Tuvaluan Order 1975 made by the Privy Council, which took effect on 1 October 1975, recognised Tuvalu as a separate British dependency with its own government. The second stage occurred on 1 January 1976 when separate administrations were created out of the civil service of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony.

### Independance (Inaomata)

The Gilberts obtained internal self-government in 1977 and held general elections in February 1978 which saw Ieremia Tabai elected Chief Minister at only age 27. Kiribati attained independence on 12 July 1979 by the Kiribati Independence Order 1979 made by the Privy Council.

Although the indigenous Gilbertese language name for the Gilbert Islands proper is *Tungaru*, the new state chose the name "Kiribati," the Gilbertese rendition of "Gilberts," as an equivalent of the former colony to acknowledge the inclusion of islands which were never considered part of the Gilberts chain. The United States gave up its claims to 14 islands of the Line and Phoenix chains (previously asserted under the Guano Islands Act) in the 1979 Treaty of Tarawa.

Following independence, the Kiribati head of state was Ieremia Tabai. At 29-years-old, Tabai served three terms as *beretitenti* (president), from 1979 to 1991. Tabai was the youngest head of state in the Commonwealth of Nations.