Consuming Ocean Island
Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Consuming Ocean Island tells the story of the land and people of Banaba, a small Pacific island, which, from 1900 to 1980, was heavily mined for phosphate, an essential ingredient in fertilizer. As mining stripped away the island's surface, the land was rendered uninhabitable, and the indigenous Banabans were relocated to Rabi Island in Fiji. Katerina Martina Teaiwa tells the story of this human and ecological calamity by weaving together memories, records, and images from displaced islanders, colonial administrators, and employees of the mining company. Her compelling narrative reminds us of what is at stake whenever the interests of industrial agriculture and indigenous minorities come into conflict. The Banaban experience offers insight into the plight of other island peoples facing forced migration as a result of human impact on the environment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this dense work, Teaiwa, a Banaban by birth and co-convener of Pacific Studies in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, proffers an insider's look at the geological, political, social and economic history of Banaba (aka Ocean Island), a miniscule island in the Republic of Kiribati. Teaiwa juxtaposes personal and community anecdotes with years of solid academic research to examine the effects of phosphate mining on the landscape. On a 1997 visit, Teaiwa encountered a "desiccated field of rocks and jagged limestone pinnacles jutting out of a gray earth," an "industrial oceanic wasteland" full of "roofless concrete buildings and corrugated iron warehouses." For most of the 20th century, British companies mined the island for its phosphate, a key ingredient in fertilizer, which is key to agriculture and global food security. Teaiwa deals with the great sense of betrayal, loss, and displacement indigenous Banabans suffered through as well as the harsh physical toll decades of excessive mining has taken on the land. With a justified sense of outrage, Teaiwa educates her audience without alienating it, laying bare the consequences of reaping such a natural bounty at the expense of others.
