Banaban youth urged to learn their history

A young Banaban law student says it is crucial for diaspora youth to understand the history of phosphate mining that led to the displacement of their people from their homeland.

Ioanna Tekenimatang Corrie, 20, said many young Banabans living across New Zealand, Australia, and mainland Fiji were unaware of their people’s history, as Banabans this week marked the 80th anniversary of their arrival on Rabi Island.

Ms Corrie, a second-year law student at Auckland University of Technology, said British phosphate mining on Banaba was so extensive that even graveyards were destroyed, scattering the remains of ancestors across the Pacific.

“I think one of the main stories is the mining on Banaba,” she said during the week-long celebrations.

“That is a very significant story that should be told to all our youth today, especially those in the diaspora. Some of us do not know the history of our people, the mining, and what really happened on Banaba.”

She said while the history was complex, its foundation was clear.

“It is a very complex history, but the core foundation that all of us need to understand is the story of phosphate mining — how it came about, and the effects and impacts it had on our ancestors and the current generation,” Ms Corrie said.

The Banabans were forcibly displaced from their phosphate-rich homeland by the British Phosphate Commission and relocated to Rabi Island, arriving on December 15, 1945.

Ms Corrie urged Banaban youth to reflect on the true meaning of the anniversary.

“Remember what our ancestors endured when they were displaced, when they were enslaved, and when they were subjected to trickery and abuse,” she said.

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