Gilbertese eyes

scan their nation’s history

To accompany the review of a book of essays in tribute to Professor Maude, it is PI M's great pleasure to present the professor himself in a reviewer's role. He writes about a new publication on a subject dear to his heart the history of Kiribati.

Kiribati - Aspects of History.

Published by the Institute of Pa cific Studies and Extension Ser vices, University of the South Pacific, and the Ministry of Education, Training and Cul ture, Republic of Kiribati. 1979.

SF4; paperback edition SF3. A separate edition in Gilbertese, Taraan Karakin Kiribati, is published at the same price.

The government of Kiribati is to be congratulated on its de cision to commemorate independence not with a statue

or a saline fountain to disfigure the Bairiki town plaza but by

producing and publishing s

history of the Gilbertese

people: a precedent which

some other nations might copy

with advantage.

The task was entrusted to 2f Gilbertese men and women j many of them teachers and university students, who were initiated into the mysteries ol historical research and writing by a team from the University of the South Pacific and a re gional specialist, Barrie Mac

donald of Massey University.

The result is an unqualified success, in which the authors, their mentors and the Kiribati Government alike can take a

justifiable pride. Whether by

accident or good fortune the Gilbertese writers have not produced yet another European-type history, labori

ously chronicling events culled

from contemporary documen tation, but rather the fascinating story of an island people from the time of te bomatemaki, when the earth and sky were

still sealed together, through

their early migrations and

settlement, European contact

and culture change, political

tutelage and development, to

the independent republic of

today.

Even viewed as a history it is refreshingly different, for the Gilbertese story is for the first time told to us as seen by Gil bertese eyes, relying heavily on this gifted people’s wealth of mythology, saga and oral tra dition; and it is written with a natural grace and vitality

which disarm literary criti cism. The chapter on creation the work of the gods, for

example, is pure lyric.

But it is far more than a his tory in that it has a conscious purpose, apparent in many of the chapters and inherent in the others; to expound to the young Gilbertese of today the distinctive content of their cul tural heritage, to stimulate them to take a justifiable pride in this heritage and in being Gilbertese, and to think and behave accordingly. It tells us what the islanders of old be lieved and how they felt and acted, illustrating with examples the forces of change, and finally detailing the cul

tural position reached today;

and this with the aim of producing a sense of Gilbertese identity at a time when, more than ever, they need to regain an understanding and pride in te katei ni Kiribati (the Gilber tese way of life).

While limitations of space have prevented any definitive treatment of the topics dealt

with in the 12 chapters, they

give an adequate enough

conspectus for the general reader. As is inevitable in sym posia there is some overlapping and repetition, though this may well assist one to grasp unfamiliar themes. At the risk of being invidious I felt that the chapter on early Gilbertese so ciety, in particular, was a first rate exposition, well constructed and written, while

Maunaa Itaia’s eloquent plea

in the final chapter for the development of a Gilbertese identity or ethos in the face of modern cultural pressures de fines in effect the purpose of the whole book. If his words are heeded this courteous and essentially democratic com munity need have few fears for its future as an independent nation.

Both in its English and Gil bertese editions the book in cludes a wealth of illustrations (some in colour), adequate maps and a selective bibli ography. At SF3 the paperback is a real bargain and a must for

everyone who wants to learn about the Pacific’s newes< country and its 57 000 peoph living in the true citadel-hean of the South Seas - an atoll paradise of 33 islands contain i ing 684 square kilometres oi

land (though allegedly doub<

ling its size at low tide) scat] tered over no less than five million square kilometres o< ocean.

Kiribati Aspects of Histor is indeed a worthy accession te the growing volume of creative works produced by island writers as part of the literar renaissance of the Central Pai cific: perhaps the region’s mos significant cultural phenomi enon during the 19705. I use th word renaissance deliberate! since over a century ag

Polynesia with its periphera

areas, including Fiji and th Gilberts, was the locale o: countless oral epics.

Few of these were writtei down, however, except mayb< by some folklorist, but the trai dition of creativity in won

form remained; to be fanned into vigorous life by the active encouragement of the Univer sity of the South Pacific, and in particular by two of its staff, Ron and Maijorie Crocombe; by the publication outlets pro vided by the South Pacific Cre ative Arts Society and literary periodicals such as Mana; and by the example of established writers such as Western Samoa’s Albert Wendt, with others like Subramani of Fiji who both write and teach the art.

The result has been a stream of short stories, poems, plays and a few books; and now we have the first locally-written history. Its immediate success has already made it the proto type of several more being

planned by other newly

emergent states, and these will

hopefully provide the material

for the ultimate regional his tory of, by and for the Pacific

peoples suggested by Niue’s

Premier Robert Rex at the re cent South Pacific Festival of Arts. H.E. Maude.