An unelected official in Fiji is demanding that visitors to Rabi lsland seek his approval before travelling there.

Rabi Administrator Iakoba Karutake has issued a policy statement saying non-Banabans visiting the island must register with local police.

He said those planning to consult or organise meetings with the Banaban community will not be allowed on the island without permission from him.

• READ MORE: Life on Rabi – a photo gallery by Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom

This comes as the Banaban Human Rights Defenders Network has called on the Fiji government to investigate human rights violations on Rabi.

Rabi became home for Banaban Islanders after the destruction of Banaba due to phosphate mining by the colonial powers.

The network has expressed its concern at the authoritarian control Karutake is assuming.

The former FijiFirst government of Voreqe Bainimarama replaced the Rabi Council of Leaders in 2013 with a temporary administrator and the network wants the council re-instated.

No consultation claim
“A spokesperson with the group, Rae Bainteiti, said Karutake had acted without consulting the people.

Bainteiti said the administrator’s role only continued to exist because the Fiji government had neglected to hold elections for the Rabi Council of Leaders.

He also asked whether such a regulation was in conflict with the Fiji Constitution.

However, Karutake told RNZ Pacific that he had conducted community consultations and he believed the people of Rabi understood what he was trying to achieve.

He claimed people like Bainteiti were stirring people up but he wanted to maintain the calm.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

I am Banaban. I come from an ancestry of survivors and a once rich land.

However, Banaba died to make other nations live. The Banabans though are proud survivors and we maintain that we are a race that still lives.

Google will tell you my ancestral home of Banaba is part of Kiribati.

• WATCH: Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness documentary Banabans of Rabi – A Story of Survival
• The Bearing Witness Project
• Kiribati Language Week – July 11-17, 2021

Though the current generation has Kiribati blood, our island of Banaba was never birthed into this world as part of Kiribati.

Before the advent of colonialism, we have always held our own identity.

When it comes to the Kiribati Independence Day on July 12, what’s a celebratory moment for I-Kiribati is a painful one for the Banabans.

When Kiribati gained independence from the British Crown, it claimed Banaba as part of its territory, and Britain handed Banaba to Kiribati.

Painful relationship
The relationship between Banaba and Kiribati became the most painful one that many do not know about.

Colonial political history is painful, but we move forward and know that we as Banabans continue to live.

This is my story and I share bits of it in the light of Kiribati Language week or Kiribati Independence week.

The Banabans have always stood firmly in our roots as Banabans.

This is not to take away from Kiribati language week and the celebration of the culture, but this is an opportunity to educate people about the Banabans because it can be easy to dismiss who we are and slot us under the “Kiribati” category.

Unfortunately, some could say: What Banabans? Without a language? Yes, Banabans speak the Kiribati language; an educated person knows that language can be lost, especially when a group becomes dominated by another due to invasions, dominations and relationships.

Language is not the only marker of racial identity.

Environmental injustice
Banaba was once filled with phosphate and it became victim to one of the world’s largest environmental injustices.

In 1900, the discovery of phosphate on Banaba by New Zealander Albert Ellis caused the beginning of systemic mining by the British Phosphate Commission (BPC).

Not many Kiwis know that New Zealand was part of the BPC.

New Zealand’s poor lands became viable agricultural lands from phosphate mined from my ancestral island of Banaba. I guess you could say that the land of Banaba died so New Zealand could live.

The Māori say: Ka mate kāinga tahi, ka ora kāinga rua, or a first home dies, a second home lives.

During World War II, Japan invaded Banaba. It was an era of horror.

Banabans were literally killed mercilessly for breaking curfew rules.

Shipped off as slaves
Banabans were shipped off to islands occupied by Japan to work as slaves.

When the war ended, my people held onto the hope that they could return to normal life in Banaba.

However, the colonial government gathered the Banabans in Tarawa and advised them that Banaba was uninhabitable due to the Japanese bombing.

The Banabans were promised a new land with beautiful homes, food in plenty and beautiful, tropical weather.

Bought out of their own phosphate royalties, Rabi island in Fiji became their new home.

Arriving on 15 December 1945, they saw no homes, no food, no tropical weather. They were given tents in a cow paddock during hurricane season.

In 2018, I had the opportunity to visit Rabi when I was in Fiji for the Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness Climate Change Project. An assignment to create a documentary piece instantly made me think of Rabi, the island my mother comes from.

From NZ to Rabi
After a few phone calls to my mother in New Zealand, we started putting things into place to make it happen. By the grace of God, my mum and stepdad managed to fly over to Fiji to embark on this journey with me.

The journey from New Zealand to Rabi went like this: plane, car, bus, ferry, car, bus, ferry.

Upon arrival in Rabi, my uncle Aretana welcomed us home.

Rabi life is simply relaxing.

This trip was monumental for me. It affirmed who I was as a Banaban.

Despite the atrocities my people faced, they still hold onto their faith, they still sing and dance and they still smile.

However, I am still angry.

Destroying Banaba
My people’s blood and bones are on the land I live on now.

New Zealand, Australia and the UK must be held to account for the part they played in destroying Banaba and rendering the Banaban race like it never existed.

The BPC governments today need to acknowledge what they did and be part of the solution in rebuilding Banaba and offering aid to the Banabans on Banaba and Rabi.

Ruled by Kiribati and Fiji we are a small community that cannot do it alone.

The Fiji-Banabans and the NZ-Banaban diaspora would love to return to Banaba, but we’re a long way from this reality. I hope it happens one day. Even a visit.

I am Banaban. I am the product of a resilient community. I come from an ancestry of survivors.

Banabans of Rabi – A Story of Survival, a short documentary by Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom while on assignment during their PMC 2018 Bearing Witness climate change project in Fiji.

Hele Christopher-Ikimotu is a youth worker for a Pasifika NGO, Affirming Works. He has a Bachelor of Communication Studies (Journalism) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies. He travelled to Rabi in 2018 with the support of the AUT Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness Project. This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Highly commended for their recent success at the Ossie Awards for the best student journalism in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific in the video story category (over 2 minutes) for their documentary Banabans of Rabi: A Story of Survival, Hele Ikimotu (Niuean and Banaban-Gilbertese) and Blessen Tom can’t rule out a return to the remote island of Rabi.

During the Second World War, the inhabitants of Banaba in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati) were forcibly displaced to Rabi in the Fiji group while the British Phosphate Company mined on Banaba, decimating the island.

The Banabans had to make a fresh start on Rabi, where they now face a new threat – climate change.

READ MORE: The Ossie Awards – the full winners list

The student pair travelled to Suva, Fiji, and were based at the University of the South Pacific before catching a boat to Rabi to tell the story of the people of Banaba as part of the Bearing Witness climate programme (International Journalism Project) run by Professor David Robie and Jim Marbrook at Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT) Pacific Media Centre.

While the talented Hele Ikimotu, who works as an initiatives and projects team member at AUT’s Office of Pacific Advancement, could not make it to the presentation of the certificates, Blessen Tom took time out from his work as an assistant producer on TVNZ’s Fair Go investigative programme to attend.

Dr Robie presented the certificates yesterday and read out the commendation from the Ossie Awards organisers, Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA), saying the prizes recognised the “cream of student journalism”:

“More than 22 journalism schools across Australia, New Zealand the Pacific compete for these awards so it is a tremendous honour to get a highly commended for Blessen and Hele, so it is a tribute to both of you,” he said.

“The judge’s comments were passed onto to me by the co-ordinator of the awards, Dr Peter English.

Judge Nicole Hegarty of the  Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Queensland said:

“Blessen and Hele’s short documentary has a nice story arc coupled with nicely framed and focused shots. The use of drone footage provided a great overview of the island. The inclusion of the reporter [Hele] in story helped to personalise or localise the story for the audience.”

‘Burning desire’
Tom, who hails from Trivandrum, Kerala, India, on the coast of the Arabian Sea, explained why he has a “burning desire” to return to Rabi – in the middle of the Pacific.

“It feels like home when I went Rabi. You have a lot of coconut trees and a tropical climate, and I felt similarity to the people there. So I felt like I was coming home,” Tom says.

“When Hele’s mum [Janet Tawaketini] told the story about the original Banabans and their community that has suffered so much, it kind of resonated with me.

“Infrastructure needs a lot of work there because there aren’t any good schools and hospitals, and electricity is very sparse.

“You feel like you you’re in a world far, far away … it was transforming I don’t know how to explain it …”

With no mod cons such as wi-fi and electricity they had to take a lot of batteries for the single camera used.

‘Lot of challenges’
“We had a lot of challenges; they didn’t have much power, so we had to be careful with what we shot.”

Tom talks about returning to Rabi because he feels an urge within to do something for the people there in the best way he knows how.

“If all bricks fall into place, I’m hoping to document a return to Rabi, because there is a plan to take all the Banabans for anniversary celebrations…they have to raise the money and then there are the logistics of getting them all to Rabi.

“And, if possible, I would like to go to Banaba and shoot the decimation done to the place.”

The nine-minute documentary got credits for screening at the Nuku’alofa International Film Festival 2018 in Tonga, Pasifika Film Festival 2019 in Salt Lake City in the USA and Maoriland Film Festival in Otaki last year. It was “published” by Asia Pacific Report last August.

The annual Ossie Awards, named after foreign correspondent Osmar S. White, are organised by JERAA. Senior journalists and editors judge the main award categories.

The winning video story (over two minutes) was Nasir Sobhani, The Streets Barber, by Catherine Smith of RMIT, and another highly commended story was Gladys Liu vs Jennifer Yang about political rivals battling to make history as the first Chinese-Australian MP, by  Youja (Kate) Tan of Monash University.

• Banabans of Rabi on Film Freeway

The successful video story, Banabans of Rabi.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Banabans of Rabi – A Story of Survival, a short documentary by Blessen Tom and Hele Ikimotu of Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre, has been selected for the Māoriland Film Festival 2019 next month.

The film will be screened as part as part of Ngā Pūtake Shorts.

This is the third official international film festival selection for Banabans of Rabi. The short documentary travelled to Salt Lake city, Utah, earlier this month and was screened at the Pasifika Film Festival.

READ MORE: Life on Fiji’s Rabi Island – simple, peaceful and full of smiles

The film had its Pacific premiere at the 2018  Nuku’alofa International Film Festival last year.

The film was produced out of the three-year-old Bearing Witness climate change project, a collaboration between PMC and its documentary partner Te Ara Motuhenga at Auckland University of Technology and the Pacific Centre for Environment-Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and Regional Journalism Programme at the University of South Pacific.

Māoriland Film Festival is Aotearoa’s largest indigenous film festival and is in its sixth year. The festival brings more than 138 films and 62 events from 94 indigenous nations to Aotearoa.

“Indigenous stories help us make sense of our world, of our connections and our shared humanity. Our sixth festival includes stories from the polar regions, from the deserts, from the mountains of Iran and Nepal, and from nations who dwell upon and beside the planet’s vast oceans including the Pacific,” says festival director Libby Hakaraia.

The 2019 MFF features a strong lineup of films from Te Moananui a Kiwa (the Pacific), including the southern hemisphere premiere of Vai.

Vai is a portmanteau feature film directed by eight female Pacific Island filmmakers and filmed in seven Pacific countries: Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Kuki Aīrani (Cook Islands), Samoa, Niue and Aotearoa (New Zealand).

The festival will also bring seven Pacific features and 41 short films from Aotearoa, Hawai’i, Papua New Guinea, Rapanui, Guam, Haida Gwaii, Vanuatu and more. Also, indigenous films from the United States, Canada, Northern Europe and Iran will also be screened at this five day film festival at Otaki.

The Māoriland Film Festival is at Ōtaki on March 20-24.

• Banabans of Rabi
• Banabans of Rabi wins highly commended award in Ossies

By Rahul Bhattarai in Auckland

Banabans of Rabi – A story of Survival, a short documentary film by the two Auckland University of Technology media students, has been premiered in the fourth Nuku’alofa International Film Festival that took place in Tonga this week.

This short documentary is a story about the people who have been first affected by the phosphate mining on their original home island of Banaba and now by climate change on their adopted island of Rabi.

The British Phosphate Commission forceful displaced them from Banaba during World War Two.

READ MORE: Life on Fiji’s Rabi Island – simple, peaceful and full of smiles

Since 1945 after they first settled into their new home – Rabi, a remote northern island in Fiji – they are faced with a second and the most threatening man-made global problem, climate change.

Tom Corrie, one of the residents who had left Rabi as a young man and later returned, says Rabi has changed.

“The part of my history has been taken away from me, part of my livelihood, my enjoyment my pleasures have gone,” he says in the documentary, pointing at his former playground that now has now been engulfed by the rising tides.

“We are the most effected by climate change,” he says.

In solidarity
“People in Rabi and their struggle with climate change, they’re not the cause of this but unfortunately they [have] had to face the consequences,” says co-director Blessen Tom.

“I wanted the world to know about their struggle and wanted to let them know that they’re not alone in this,” says Tom.

The film was a part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness climate change project, which was initiated by director Professor David Robie in 2016.

It has been made possible by collective support from the partners, University of South Pacific Journalism, the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and AUT’s Te Ara Motuhenga documentary collective with senior and documentary maker Jim Marbrook.

Film makers Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom travelled to Tonga with the assistance of a funding grant from AUT’s School of Communication Studies.

• ‘Bearing Witness’ – a Pacific climate change journalism research and publication initiative

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

A short documentary, Banabans of Rabi – A Story of Survival, by Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom of Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre, has been selected for the 2018 Nuku’alofa Film Festival in Tonga next month.

This is a film produced out of the three-year-old Bearing Witness climate change project, a research and publication collaboration between the PMC and its documentary partner Te Ara Motuhenga, and the Pacific Centre for Environment-Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific.

According to the filmmakers: “During the Second World War, the inhabitants of the island of Banaba were forcibly displaced to Rabi Island in Fiji due to phosphate mining by the British Phosphate Commission.

“The island of Banaba was decimated and the Banabans had to start afresh in Rabi. The documentary follows the people in Rabi and sheds light into the problems that they face now, especially with climate change.”

Film maker Blessen Tom said on the documentary’s Facebook page: “It’s an amazing news for all of us. The festival will be the first time the full documentary is screened in public.

“Super excited for the Pacific screening. If you’re in Tonga on November 22-23, be sure to visit us.”

Documentary maker and senior lecturer Jim Marbrook said: “This is great and it’s a very cool first step,” adding that plans should be made for other film festival entries.

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie said: “This is a tremendous achievement for starters and a reward for the really hard work that Blessen and Hele have put into making this quality and inspirational doco.”

• Banabans of Rabi
• 2018 Nuku’alofa Film Festival