Tag: Pacific Islands

Say NO to the death penalty in Kiribati.

For thousands of years Pacific culture has lead to men believing that domestic violence is right and a man’s prerogative. This is absolutely wrong, but it doesn’t take a bill in parliament to change a society’s ways that they have held for thousands of years.

Looking forward, looking back.

By learning more about ourselves, we learn more about the world. The more we learn about the world, the more our diverse communities grow to learn and respect each other.It is everyone’s responsibility to share what they know about their own community.

Kiribati bans fishing in Pheonix Islands Protected Area

As of last week, Kiribati President Anote Tong, announced that PIPA will be officially banned for all commercial fishing by the end of the year. In response to this, we can expect the numbers of tuna, billfish and sharks to double within a couple of decades, hopefully with a steady rise to their original numbers.

Tong must work harder for Kiribati women

I walked back to the house with two cousins running ahead and a baby cousin on my hip. I was wearing a traditional Kiribati top (tiibuta) and a sarong. I was barefoot and despite my lighter skin, I could have been any other I-Kiribati woman. A baby on my hip, yelling at my younger cousins to stop fighting and going back to my house where my family waited.

Non-communicable diseases in Kiribati and Pacific Island nations

Diabetes and obesity influenced diseases are the biggest health worries in not just Kiribati but throughout all of the Pacific Islands. I remember when I was little, we would be at the airport waiting to board Air Nauru to get to Kiribati and we’d sit there trying to figure out who were Nauruans and who were I-Kiribati. The most obvious difference? We followed the rule that ‘Nauruans are the fat ones and I-Kiribati are the small ones’.

Kiribati and what it’s doing about climate change

Abeta’s motivation for the book is simple and yet captivating:
‘I think forging our home island of Kiribati forward through today’s challenges, particularly in the future bleak scenarios brought in by climate change has been my biggest motivation to complete this book’

Paradise on earth? Welcome to the Pacific!

It’s almost winter here in Melbourne and while the rain falls and the frost thickens, we while away our time by looking out the window and dreaming of holidays.  Holidays with endless sunshine, drinking straight from the coconut and swimming in the ocean at night. The Pacific Islands can give you this luxury and it…

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Where are you going?

They will laugh at you. Most of the time you won’t know what you’ve done to make them laugh. Just roll with it and don’t take it as a personal insult – they just laughing. You’ll get used to it.

‘The sun is getting closer’

I believe that the world is changing in climate. Not because a politician has said it, not because it’s in the newspaper and not because someone else has told me that I should. I’m taking the word of a local I-Kiribati fisherman who is just trying to provide for his family.