MATAI

Student ID:
Name:
Vaka leader: Yogita Mala (Vaka 3)
Number of words: 878 – Reflective Part (excluding in-text referencing)
Topic Question: Outline an endangered land or ocean resource in your Pacific island
community and discuss + create a matai, and highlight its significance, how it is being harmed
and ways it can be protected.

CREATIVE PART: POEM

“Tanon Banaba”

Phosphate.
A blessing and a treasure
from God,
for Banaban earthly pleasures.
Sought after by outcasts and foreigners,
for their own selfish pleasures

‘Tanon Banaba,’
Our ‘Tano,’
Our foundation,
Our source of nourishment,
Destructively mined,
For its rich minerals
For foreigner’s gain and
foreigner’s ‘Tano.’

Unfairly sold!
For coins.
To please the foreigner
and the gun he points.
Succumb to their demands
and pay a small price,
or fight back,
and pay the ultimate price.

Land destruction,
for phosphate royalty
and future prosperity?
More like,
Greed and barbarity,
and immorality.
Please! I beg!
Look closer,
and dig deeper
for disclosure.

Our future and Land,

In our hands it lies.
Protect it we must!
Before it dies.
Take heed of my plea,
And do not be fooled
By these foreign,
Greedy fools.

By Tokinteiti Tabore

Glossary
‘Tanon Banaba’ – Banaban soil (direct translation)
‘Tano’ – soil
REFLECTIVE PART:

Phosphate are rock deposits that are formed through the natural accumulation of organic matter
over a prolonged period of time. It is a source of natural phosphorous, which is very nutritious
for all plants and thus making it a key ingredient in fertilizers (OCPGroup, n.d.). Phosphate
minerals are predominantly found on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Banaba (Ocean Island) and
have been destructively extracted ever since its discovery in the early 1900s. The following
writing will briefly elaborate on the significance, how it will be protected and ways in which to
protect the endangered Banaban phosphate mineral.

To begin with, the Banaban phosphate mineral, since almost the entire island is made of it, is the
very land we build our thatched roof houses over and where we plant and forage the food we eat,
which is similar to that of the I-Taukei people, of how they view the land (Tuwere, 2002). The
phosphate rich land on which my people lived on, is thus the source of sustenance and life for the
Banaban people. According to my parents, our island of Banaba was very prone to droughts and
our ancestors had to rely on coconut water for prolonged periods of times. But thanks to the
phosphate rich soil, coconut trees were abundant and were sufficient for our survival. Thus, due
to the healthy, phosphate mineral rich ‘tano’ of Banaba, most of our ancestors did not need to
migrate to neighboring islands to avoid the devasting droughts. Hence, the phosphate minerals in
the land were crucial for the survival of my people, since it became our vital source for food and
water, thus also becoming part of our ancestors’ story of perseverance, which is reiterated
through our traditional dances and songs.

To add on, ever since the discovery of phosphate on Banaba in 1900 by Albert Ellis, a myriad of
events took place thereafter, which changed the course of my peoples’ lives forever. Between
1900 and 1979, Banaba was being mined and degraded to an extent whereby around 80% of the
entire island’s surface was removed, leaving behind trail of uninhabitable land (Edwards, 2014).
Followed by World War II, barbaric Japanese forces took over Banaba and during their
occupation, nearly massacred the entire native population, but due to the intervention of
American forces along with its allies, a mere 150 Banabans managed to survive. The genocide
attempt by the Japanese forces were an attempt to annihilate the indigenous population to prevent
any form of future retaliation against their future phosphate mining plans. Reminiscence of the
brutal occupation could still be recalled by my grandmother, who had endured that barbaric
torment of the Japanese (Encyclopaedia, 2011). The British, Australian and New Zealand
governments, along with the British Phosphate Commissioners (BPC), decided to relocate my
ancestors to Rabi Island, Fiji in 1945, due to the growing resistance to their phosphate mining on
Banaba and the inhospitable landscape that they had created. Phosphate mining had officially
halted in 1979, due to our ancestor’s legal and physical intervention, but by that time, 80% of the
land and phosphate had been devastated and extracted, leaving an unhabitable land area and thus
the remaining people on Banaba are more vulnerable to frequent droughts (Teaiwa, 2015). The
Banaban and Nauru resource extraction dilemmas are similar to that of the logging issues in the
Solomon Islands, whereby foreigners had selfishly overstepped their boundaries and had no
regard for indigenous peoples, culture and values, and had barely compensated the natives for the
extensive and permanent damaged they had caused (Kabutaulaka, 2000). Thus, over the past
century, my people’s source of sustenance has been severely depleted and may take thousands to
even millions of years for it to renew itself.

Moreover, ever since phosphate mining stopped in the late 1900s, there have been numerous
attempts by new Asian miners and developers, who also want to extract the remaining 20% of
the phosphate that is still left on Banaba Island. These prospective investors have promised to
rehabilitate the entire island and make it habitable for our people, but we have had enough. It is
in the best interest of our people to stay away from these resource hungry investors and miners
and preserve and conserve the remaining phosphate we have on Banaba for future generations to
come. Even though there is only about 20% left, that still warrants an urgent call to preserve and
conserve since it is a part of our natural heritage, and that is what makes our island naturally
unique and culturally valuable. Thus, the only way to protect this natural heritage of ours,
according to my parents, is to stay clear of foreigners who try to or have plans and strategies to
extract it, because it will just cause further damage to our island and threaten the future of our
homeland.
In conclusion, phosphate mining, an important cultural heritage to the Banaban people must be
protected given the myriad of unfortunate events that has depleted it. These foreigners only see
an economic commodity with no cultural value and would go to great lengths to get what they
want, at the expense of the indigenous peoples. Hence, it is important for me and my fellow
Banabans, even though we are not physically on Banaba, to protect whatever remains of the
natural heritage that our ancestors have inherited from God.

Bibliography

Bibliography
Edwards, J. B. (2014). Phosphate mining and the relocation of the Banabans to northern Fiji in 1945:
Lessons for climate change-forced displacement. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 138 -139,
121 - 136. doi:https://doi.org/10.4000/jso.7100

Encyclopaedia, T. E. (2011). Banaba. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/place/Banaba.

Kabutaulaka, T. T. (2000). 6. Rumble in the Jungle: Lands, Culture and (un)sustainable Logging in the
Solomon Islands . (A. Hooper, Ed.) Culture and Sustainable Development in the Pacific, 88 - 97.
Retrieved November 2022

OCPGroup. (n.d.). OCP. Retrieved November 2022, from What is phosphate?:

https://www.ocpgroup.ma/what-is-phosphate

Teaiwa, K. M. (2015). Consuming Ocean Island: Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba.
International Sociology Review, 32(5), 246 . doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580917725277a

Tuwere, I. S. (2002). Chapter 2 - Fijian View of the Land. In I. S. Tuwere, VANUA - Towards a Fijian
Theology of Place (pp. 33 - 51). Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific and College of St. John
the Evangelist. Retrieved November 2022
Appendix:

21/10/2022 – Matai assignment breakdown by Ms. Yogita mala

28/10/2022 – Chosen question 2, following Ms. Yogita’s in-class advice and further points on
Matai
05/11/2022 – Poem stanza plan and start to develop according to the Matai question