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In a world that has seen so much
change during the past 100 years it is fitting and appropriate to
educate our children about historical events that still have
lasting and tragic implications in today's modern world. The story
of the forgotten Banaban people from the Central Pacific is such a
case, where at the turn of this century man's greed was put above
all else in the name of so called 'progress'.
The year 1900 was just beginning
when this small indigenous race called the Banabans who had lived
peacefully on their tiny central Pacific island suddenly found
themselves thrust onto the world stage. The richest deposits of
phosphate of lime had just been discovered by Albert Ellis a New
Zealander working for a London based company. Up until this
discovery no one had wanted Banaba or Ocean Island as it was then
known through out the western world. It had always been considered
too remote to be worthy of settlement by the Colonial governments
of the day. But all this was soon to change, and so was the status
of the Banaban people. They had just become expendable...
The forgotten story of the
Banabans is a very special tale. One which in today's society
would cause a world outcry and would never have been allowed to
happen. It's a lesson we should tell our future generations to
ensure that these tragic events in history are never repeated.
It's also a wonderful story of courage, determination and hope as
the Banabans come back from the very brink of extinction.
THE BEGINNING
OF THE END
With the discovery of phosphate,
Albert Ellis quickly began negotiations with the Banabans to buy
or lease land for his company. The ignorant and trusting Banabans
were only to happy to welcome new visitors and not understanding
the language placed crosses on lengthy legal documents signing
their island away for 50 pounds per annum for the next 999 years.
With the influx of European settlers to this remote outcrop with
a total area of only 595 hectares the Banabans
soon began to realise that their beloved homeland was disappearing
before their very eyes. And so began an era of constant strife and
haggling over the Banaban's disputed land issues or what would
eventually be the stepping stones on the path to annihilation.
After years of dissension between
the Banabans, the British government and the lucrative phosphate
fertiliser industry the Banabans found themselves being forced
into so called 'Agreements' enacting new British laws that would
see the compulsory acquisition of their land. By 1920 the
original British owned Pacific
Islands Phosphate Company was sold at great profit to a
joint venture consortium made up of the British, Australian and
New Zealand governments. This new company was called the
British Phosphate Commission.
THE EXILE FROM
THE HOMELAND
At the beginning of 1942 another
tragedy would strike the Banaban community when the Japanese
forces invaded the island and in another devastating blow exiled
the Banabans to labour camps in other islands in the Pacific:
Kosrae, Nauru and Tarawa where the Banabans were mainly used to
grow crops such as pumpkins for the Japanese forces in the
Pacific.
Immediately after the War in the
Pacific was over, the Banabans were gathered up and transported to
Rabi Island in the Fiji Group. Rabi had been purchased for them by
the British government from the Banaban's own Provident Fund. Rabi
is considered a beautiful island with plenty of water, and rich
volcanic soil. But the Banabans first beginnings on Rabi were a
great struggle. They were originally left on the island in quickly
erected army tents, with enough rations to only last the community
for two months.
To make matters worse they had
arrived on the island in the middle of the cyclone season, and the
Banabans began to experience cold and wet weather for the first
time. Their homeland was situated right on the Equator and they
had never experienced such cold weather before. The general health
of the people was at a very low ebb after surviving years of
deprivation in Japanese work camps. Army tents provided no
protection against Fiji's annual cyclone season and they lost many
of their aged and young people to pneumonia.
THE
HOMELAND TODAY
After so many years of
Phosphate
mining, the island lays devastated. Today
on Banaba out of the original 595 hectares (approx. 1,500 acres) of
once lush tropical land, only 150 acres remains unmined, with the
whole centre of the island left with horrific towering limestone
pinnacles which rise to a height of 80 feet in places making the
island’s interior impassable. Masses of rusting mining
machinery lays rotting under the hot equatorial sun, while a small
Banaban community of around 500 people live a traditional life-style
amongst the ruins of the old company buildings on the rim of the
island.
The buildings were left abandoned
at the cessation of mining back in 1980. At present, the saga of
Banaba and its people has been forgotten by the outside world. The
Banabans presence on their beloved homeland is to protect their
island from ever being taken from them again. Now no ships call on
the island except for a supply vessel that drops in a few times a
year.
For the Banaban people, their
homeland will always be BEAUTIFUL!
THE
BANABANS TODAY
The Banabans now find themselves scattered
between their greatly diminished original homeland, today known as
Banaba and the faraway Rabi in the remote north-east region of
Fiji. To make things more confusing for the Banabans, their
original homeland of Banaba is governed by the Republic of
Kiribati (originally Gilbert Island Group) and Rabi falls under
the Republic of Fiji.
Today, while the people struggle to survive under two separate Pacific
island nations, the Banabans believe that nothing is more
important than the preservation of their heritage and ethnic
identity.
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