Three Generations of Banaban Advocacy

My great-great-grandfather, Tenamo, lived on Banaba with his mother, Kieuea. His son, Teaiwa, was sent to live with relatives in Tabiteuea in Kiribati, where he had a son named Tabakitoa (my grandfather). Teaiwa, Tabakitoa and his mother Takeuea, travelled  to Banaba in the mid 1940s to find it unrecognizable. Phosphate mining by an international conglomerate had removed most of its topsoil, decimated sacred lands, and made the island nearly uninhabitable. Tabakitoa left Banaba as a child as part of the British Phosphate company’s forceable relocation of the remaining population to Rabi in the Fiji Islands.  

 

The Banabans lost everything except their tenacious desire to maintain their culture and traditions. They re-established Banaba’s four villages on Rabi, including our family’s village of Tabiang and great-grandfather’s village of Tabwewa. Tabakitoa become the first Banaban to obtain a Fiji government scholarship and attend university. He travelled far from home to study at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Tabakitoa had nine brothers and sisters, and as the eldest and most educated he has been involved for much of his life with the welfare of Teaiwa's kainga (family residence and community), which now consists of over sixty children, a hundred grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, many of whom live at Tabona just outside the village of Tabiang on Rabi. My grandfather became Fiji’s permanent secretary of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and Urban and Rural Development for many years  before returning to Rabi to chair the island’s Council of Leaders and serve as the Banaban representative in the Kiribati Parliament in the late 90s and early 2000s.  

 

My grandfather's efforts as a Banaban leader and advocate lived on in the contributions of his three daughters. My Aunt Teresia, a leading Pacific Studies scholar, teacher and activist in Aotearoa New Zealand, inspired countless people through her voice and poetry. When she passed away in 2017, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring from scholars and political leaders and artists who celebrated her contributions to Pacific culture, education and history. My Aunt Katerina, an anthropologist and Professor at the Australian National University, wrote the book Consuming Ocean Island about the destruction of Banaba by phosphate mining in the 20th Century. My mother, an obstetrician-gynecologist, has leveraged her skills and knowledge to aid the community through medical missions to Tungaru Central Hospital in Kiribati.  

 

This family heritage left me with the desire to make my own contribution to the Banaban community. My grandfather’s full name is John Tabakitoa Teaiwa, since Banaban sons take their father’s first name as a last name. ‘Teaiwa’ translates as ‘fiery canoe,’ such as the outriggers once used for inter-island travel. As I launched my own advocacy on behalf of Pacific Islanders, I took inspiration from our family name and founded the Fiery Canoe Foundation. We began by raising $6,000 using a Fundly page in 2021 to help obtain resources for the Banaban community during COVID-19 and get our foundation off the ground. Now a 501(c)(3) certified nonprofit, Fiery Canoe’s mission is to support, safeguard, and promote Banaban culture, wellbeing and heritage. 

 

-Kea Rutherford, Founder, Fiery Canoe Foundation