A warm but critical

view of the Gilbertese

If a summary of the Gilber tese character, written about 40 years ago by a French Roman Catholic missionary still holds good, then one may well won der what the future holds for the Gilbert Islands, due to be come independent in a few months.

The missionary, Father Ernest Sabatier, sums up both the strengths and the weak nesses of the Gilbertese in his book Sous VEquateur du Pacifique which has just been published in English under the title. Astride the Equator: An Account of the Gilbert Islands.

He says; ‘lt’s useless to ask whether the Gilbertese is lazy.

He has no idea about making up his mind or organising his life ... In fact he is like a child in that he needs constant direc tion and instructions. The renewing of thatching has be come a government task, for left to himself the Gilbertese would be quite happy with a hut or dugout where he would sleep with his feet sticking out.’

Elsewhere, he says: The Gil bertese worker has no balance in his day between rest and doing his job. If he feels like a break, a rest or a siesta then he simply takes it ... Planting babai, catching fish, making up a sack of copra are all tasks which can be done tomorrow ... or in a month’.

Sabatier’s book consists of

two separate parts, the first being a detailed account of life and customs in the Gilberts, the second a history of the Sacred Heart Mission during its first half century in those islands.

The book was written to celebrate the mission’s jubilee in 1938. Sabatier had then spent about 25 years in the Gil berts. As the book was written in French, it has been inaccess ible to most English-speaking readers until now.

The English translation is

brilliantly done by Ursula

Nixon, who spent three years in the Gilberts in the 1970s.

While blunt in his criticism of the Gilbertese with respect to certain European-oriented

and appreciated daily tasks,

Sabatier is quick to point out that the Gilbertese is not a

comatose being. Rather, he de votes his considerable energies to leisure activities and flings himself into these in a frenzied way, even forgetting to eat and drink.

On the credit side, Sabatier describes the life and con ditions of the Gilbertese with great understanding, warmth and sympathy. He shows that the lot of the Gilbertese was not an easy one when he was writing, for the islands were extremely poor in resources and with few home comforts.

Sabatier’s love for and sym pathy with the Gilbertese is manifest. After weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of these islanders, he concludes that in them one can sense something ‘very humane, sen sible and polite, dating from the distant past’.

Sabatier says at the begin ning: ‘My intention in writing this book is to describe the Gil bertese people in particular . . .

Unfortunately they are not, as yet, united by the one true faith!’

At the time this was written, the ecumenical spirit of today was a long way off, and the

rivalry and hostility between Protestant and Roman Cath olic in the mission fields had been a fact of life since mission beginnings in the 19th cen tury.

Sabatier’s crusading evan gelical zeal is never far from the surface, but one tends to discount it in the face of his warm yet critical appreciation of the Gilbertese.

In the first part of the book, Sabatier describes with real feeling the environment of the Gilbertese, their islands, the flora and fauna, the seas and the elements.

Astride the Equator also contains a comprehensive account of the myths, legends, beliefs and superstitions of the Gilbertese. For much of this; Sabatier gives due acknowl edgement to Sir Arthur Grim ble as his source.

Sabatier the missionary shines through at times,

though, especially where magic

and sorcery are concerned.

Satan is blamed for all the un

pleasant supernatural phenom

ena — Darrell Tryon (ASTRIDE THE EQUATOR: AN ACCOUNT OF THE GIL BERT ISLANDS. Translated by Ursula Nixon from Sous I’Equaleur du Pacifique by Ernest Sabatier.

Oxford University Press. Melbourne. SA23.50.)