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Land, Displacement, and Continuity? Stories from the Gilbertese people in the Solomon Islands
featuring Dr. Tammy Tabe, Oceania Research Fellow, East-West Center
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. HST
Live online via Zoom
Ongoing discussions on migration and displacement of Pacific Islands communities due to climate change underlines the importance of land – an entity that nurtures Pacific Islands cultures and identities through continuous grounding and connection. Yet, land has also been used as an instrument for resistance against climate change displacement and relocation for Pacific Islands. In the 1960s, groups of Gilbertese families were forced to relocate from the Phoenix Islands in what today is known as Kiribati to Solomon Islands as a result of what was considered by the British Colonial Administration as drought-stricken islands that could no longer sustain the Gilbertese population. Despite resistance by the people, they were forced to relocate on the basis that they would be given more land for the ones that they would leave behind and a better future in the Solomon Islands. The Gilbertese people have lived in the Solomon Islands for over 60 years and continue to integrate into the larger Solomon Islands society through intermarriages and ways of life. In this presentation, Dr. Tammy Tabe will talk about two aspects of her work: First, the engineering of the Gilbertese relocation to the Solomon Islands. Second, how Gilbertese, despite being uprooted from their home islands, use the land given to them in the Solomon Islands to reconstruct a place they now call home, and how this may inform conversations of displacement and continuity for Pacific communities that may be subject to climate-induced migration and displacement in the future.
Dr. Tammy Tabe is an Oceania Research Fellow at East-West Center. Prior to this, she was a Lecturer at the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development at the University of the South Pacific (USP). She is a Solomon Islander of I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan descent. She works widely in the Pacific Islands on areas like marine protected areas, community and ecosystem-based adaptation, gender inequality, historical relocation and displacement of Pacific Islands people, identity and diaspora, and climate change-induced migration and displacement.
Land, Displacement, and Continuity? Stories from the Gilbertese people in the Solomon Islands
featuring Dr. Tammy Tabe, Oceania Research Fellow, East-West Center
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. HST
Live online via Zoom
Ongoing discussions on migration and displacement of Pacific Islands communities due to climate change underlines the importance of land – an entity that nurtures Pacific Islands cultures and identities through continuous grounding and connection. Yet, land has also been used as an instrument for resistance against climate change displacement and relocation for Pacific Islands. In the 1960s, groups of Gilbertese families were forced to relocate from the Phoenix Islands in what today is known as Kiribati to Solomon Islands as a result of what was considered by the British Colonial Administration as drought-stricken islands that could no longer sustain the Gilbertese population. Despite resistance by the people, they were forced to relocate on the basis that they would be given more land for the ones that they would leave behind and a better future in the Solomon Islands. The Gilbertese people have lived in the Solomon Islands for over 60 years and continue to integrate into the larger Solomon Islands society through intermarriages and ways of life. In this presentation, Dr. Tammy Tabe will talk about two aspects of her work: First, the engineering of the Gilbertese relocation to the Solomon Islands. Second, how Gilbertese, despite being uprooted from their home islands, use the land given to them in the Solomon Islands to reconstruct a place they now call home, and how this may inform conversations of displacement and continuity for Pacific communities that may be subject to climate-induced migration and displacement in the future.
Dr. Tammy Tabe is an Oceania Research Fellow at East-West Center. Prior to this, she was a Lecturer at the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development at the University of the South Pacific (USP). She is a Solomon Islander of I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan descent. She works widely in the Pacific Islands on areas like marine protected areas, community and ecosystem-based adaptation, gender inequality, historical relocation and displacement of Pacific Islands people, identity and diaspora, and climate change-induced migration and displacement.
