live (and like) it

Life as Nauruans live (and like) it

The Nauruans. By Solange Petit-Skinner. Published by the Macduff Press, San Francisco, 1981. 304 pp. Hardback 5U524.30 posted. ISBN 0 9606272 0 0.

For many islanders indepen dence has stimulated a pride in their ethos and culture, long stifled by colonial political and economic domination. As a re sult we find an increasing num ber of works being produced dealing with the indigenous way of life and historical heritage of a people, and written by local or expatriate writers for island readers rather than academic colleagues.

The Nauruans is a welcome addition to this new type of literature, for during her fieldwork on Nauru in 1975-76 Solange Petit-Skinner evidently succeeded in penetrating the polite but arm’s length reserve with which the Nauruans treat most expatriates. She obviously liked and admired them, and the empathy engendered has enabled her to write an authori tative yet sympathetic account of the island and its people, with special emphasis on the individ ual life cycle, fishing, games and medicine, and a final chap ter transcribing 13 traditional stories in Nauruan and English for the children of today and tomorrow.

It seems that the Nauruans have much to teach us, for example in grooming, body care, cleanliness and the good manners governing inter personal relations; and there is no better guide than the author for these and many other hith erto unrecorded aspects of their remarkably complex yet still cohesive lifestyle, which she deals with in her fascinating English laced with French id iomatic phrases. Who knew before, for instance, that with their unusually acute sense of smell the Nauruans have devel oped ways of perpetuating an enticing personal fragrance which would make the fortune of a Parisian perfumer?

With the Nauruans per

fumed lotions are considered too evanescent and an island beauty apparently prefers to steam herself in scent to that it ‘penetrates her hair, her breath and the perfume circulates through her entire body’; or, better still, she drinks a potion of aromatic plants, leaves or flowers till the fragrance is exhaled ‘and a pleasant air floats all around the person, as if the body is wrapped in a scented aura’. We are assured that the exhalations are long lasting and that ‘to attach a lover, to attract a partner or to be the belle of the ball these potions are miraculous’; evi dently a date with someone who has been imbibing a spoonful of Eau de Nauru three times a day after meals could be quite something to remember.

Again, it is intriguing to learn that the Nauruan may ay o (healer) often knows by in tuition not only when his next patient will arrive but what he will be suffering from and the appropriate treatment surely a valuable time-saver for any busy G.P. and there is at least one mayayo who special ises in finding lost things by using similar techniques of pre vision without having to stir from his surgery.

But enough has been quoted to show that this is a refreshingly different study from the typical ethnographic treatise. There is, in fact, no other way of learning about this unique community after its enforced exile during World War 11, when most of the old men and women, who were repositories of traditional lore and values, succumbed to pri vations; for Hambruch and Kayser, the two pre-war authorities on Nauru, describe a society which no longer exists.

The book is furthermore likely to become a collectors’ piece, for the only way known to obtain a copy is direct from the publishers: the Mac Duff Press, 110 Sutter St, Suite 1003, San Francisco. California 94104,

H. E. Maude.