Life for people on atolls is hard, affected by droughts, rough seas, and
other adverse climatic conditions, and now, rise in sea level threatens
their very inhabitance. No wonder kinship is the foundation of atoll
societies, traditional and modern! This book presents a
multidisciplinary, retrospective analysis of a Pacific Atoll People
living in several countries but held together as a diaspora through
notions of kinship.
The People have ancestral, cultural, social and continuing residential
connections with Nikunau Atoll, at the center of the Pacific Ocean and
once a Cinderella of the British Empire. The analysis explicates their
present diasporic circumstances and the pathways through which these
arose historically. The intention is to provide a basis for better
prospects for succeeding generations from a critical, better-informed
standpoint.
The analysis relies on the partisan stance of the author, whose kinship
ties with I-Nikunau (= people who identify with Nikunau) are affinal,
and his 30-year immersion among the People in question. In addition, a
large quantity of literature sources and other secondary data are woven
into the analysis, as situations and events are grappled with,
articulated, interpreted, and written into the book.
The circumstances are analyzed under 14 themes, namely, geographical,
demographical, economic, environmental, cultural, societal, etc. The
analysis should stir the waters of recent research about Nikunau and
Kiribati, much of it concerned with environmental changes making
uninhabitable Nikunau, Tarawa, and other atolls where I-Nikunau reside,
and imagining their resettlement on higher ground, for example, New
Zealand, where several diasporic communities exist already.
This recent research refers frequently to the social, cultural and
economic matters covered in this book, indicating how relevant and
important these matters are to the future of I-Nikunau and I-Kiribati.
Furthermore, this relevance and importance may apply to the future of
other peoples still inhabiting the world's atolls and facing whatever
challenges this future may bring, climate-related and otherwise.
Abstract in Gilbertese:
Te Abam'akoro ae Nikunau, e riki inanon ana tai Te Tia Karikib'ai ae
Nareau ngke e tabe n anenea kunana ni katabwenaa te Boo ma Te Maaki. Mai
ikanne ao a tia ni maeka anti ma aomata ma aomata ake a bungiaki iaona.
A m'akuriia abaia b'a ana toronib'ai man inaomata ao ni kukurei. Kaaro
ma tiibu a wantongaia ataei karakinan Nikunau, katein Nikunau ao
karinean tuan M'aneaban Nikunau. Rikiaia naba kain Nikunau b'a te
boborau n taai akekei ni karokoa ngkai. Te nako Tarawa, Nutiran, Buritan
ao ai aaba aika raroa nako. Ana kamateb'ai Te -Imatang aei e boboto iaon
karakinan te I-Nikunau ma ana kakam'akuri ma ana waaki iaon abana ae
Nikunau AO ni boboto riki iaon m'am'a nangaia nakon aaba ake itinanikun
Nikunau ike a riki b'a ianena ao tera aroia ni kakam'akuri mani waaki
ngkai ai te naan I-Abatera ngaiia.
