Banaban people were tricked into selling their land to the British Phosphate Commission for well under its value. A new exhibition in Auckland tells their story.

The story of Banaba is not often told in Aotearoa, despite our country having a direct connection with the small island that has faced displacement, intergenerational loss and discrimination. Banaba, also known as Ocean Island, is a part of Kiribati and has generous amounts of phosphate of lime, which soon caught the attention of other countries.

In a new exhibition at Silo 6 in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, there are old newspaper clippings, photographs and an old, vintage weighing scale, where one side has pennies, and the other side is holding a single paper note.

Zachary Tabukinibanaba, 28, a full-time caregiver for his father on Rabi Island, arrived in Auckland this week to perform a traditional Banaban dance at the exhibition’s special event on Thursday.

He explained that the scales represent when Banaban people were tricked into selling their land to the Pacific Islands Phosphate Company (later renamed to British Phosphate Commission) for less than its true value. New Zealander Albert Ellis, who worked for the London-based company, told the Banaban people the company had the exclusive rights of phosphate mining on Ocean Island for 999 years for the cost of 50 pounds a year, claiming it was the “will of the natives”.

“Banaban people didn’t understand English or Britain’s currency and so when Albert Ellis gave the Banabans the choice between the coins or £1 note to sell the phosphate reserve to the company, the Banabans chose the coins because they assumed with it being heavier, it was worth more than the note,” Tabukinibanaba says.

“Banabans were told to sign a contract that they could not read by putting down an x and later watched their beloved homeland disappear.”

Britain, Australia and New Zealand all prospered through the mining of phosphate, leaving Banaba as a moonscape.

Tabukinibanaba walks me through to the second room of the exhibition, where a large fine mat artwork hangs from the ceiling. “This highlights our move from Banaba to Rabi Island as you can see with the boat and the plane is more about the idea of travelling not how we transported to Rabi,” Tabukinibanaba says.

Rabi Island is a part of Fiji.

“Te Atua Buokara Banaba” means the Lord helps us – we’re a Christian nation,” he says.

Tabukinibanaba points at a teepee tent displayed with a suitcase inside and a piece of cloth with the word “SOLD” written on it in red. 

“This reenactment of history symbolises the broken promise and the lies that the British Phosphate Commission told the Banabans when they were migrating to Rabi Island,” he says.

After the war in the Pacific where Japanese forces invaded Banaba in 1942, the BPC purchased Rabi Island for the Banabans to move to. 

Tabukinibanaba says his ancestors were promised two-storey houses and that Rabi is a beautiful island with plenty of water with rich volcanic soil, but when around 1,000 Banabans arrived, their new homes were assembled army tents with only enough rations to last the community for two months.

“The British told my ancestors that they’ll come back in two years’ time to take them back to Banaba, but they never did. Banabans had to adapt to the Fijian way of life, learning about livestock and farming. That was the first time they had seen horses and cows,” he says.

“We’re unique in a way because we can say we’re from two countries; Kiribati and Fiji.”

The exhibit is produced by Katja Phutaraksa Neef, a political artist and master’s student at the University of Auckland. Neef visited Rabi Island where she met with Banaban elders, women and young people to record stories, photographs, songs and dances related to what it means to be Banaban from their perspective and display it in this exhibition called Justice for Rabi: The story of Banaba.

“We were granted permission by the elders to share their stories on the condition that we share them with the world,” Neef says. “I wanted to raise awareness of not only the beautiful Banaban culture, but the human rights violations faced by Banaban communities for many years.

To this day, the impacts of displacement are felt by Banaban communities, both on Rabi Island and in Auckland, who have lost their land, their language and their culture, says Neef. “In Rabi, there’s no funding to pay for a cultural teacher at the school there. They continue to face discrimination as a partially self-governing entity falling between the cracks of Fiji and Kiribati, and for too long their stories remain largely unheard in Aotearoa where the benefits of mining allowed the British to advance their colonisation and kickstart New Zealand’s agricultural sector.”

The exhibition aims to draw attention to a petition organised by the International Centre for Advocates Against Discrimination calling for the New Zealand government to claim responsibility for the harm caused to Banaba and make a public apology. There’s also a call for donations to the Banaban Women’s Organisation

In 1976, the Banabans brought legal action against the UK government, which the UK settled with a payment, which absolved them of legal obligations. The amount was significantly lower than the Banabans sought through court. In 1979, the Gilbert Islands were granted independence from the British government while Banaba, despite resistance, was given to Kiribati.

Kiribati received a sum of £685 million from Britain’s independence settlement package, earned from mining Banaba for nearly a century. However, this did not go towards rebuilding the homes and lives of Banabans who were resettled on Rabi Island.

The petition includes six requests such as disbursing immediate development assistance to Banaba to ensure the population has sustainable access to basic food supplies and clean water, extending immigration access for Banabans in New Zealand through education programming, healthcare access and a seasonal worker quota for Banabans and incorporating Banaban history into New Zealand’s secondary school history curriculum.

Justice for Rabi: The Story of Banaba runs from 20 February 2023 – 9 March 2023, with a special event on Thursday 2 March with honoured guests from Rabi, including live song and dance performances and storytelling.

This is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.