Transcript
While Australia and New Zealand saw phosphate as a silver-bullet for increased agricultural production, the people of Banaba saw it as the reason for their exile.
'Project Banaba' is a multi-media history of what they see as colonial disregard for their homeland.
Katerina Teaiwa was brought up on Fiji's Rabi Island where the British Phosphate Company relocated Banabans.
"I was raised in Fiji in a household with a father from Kiribati who was from Banaba and from Tabiteuea Island and a mum from Washington DC, she's African-American, and we grew up participating in various Banaban cultural celebrations and gatherings. And as children we sort of heard bits and pieces about the story of how Banabans were moved from Kiribati to Fiji in 1945."
Ms Teaiwa says some Banaban history was taught at school on Rabi but politics was adult business.
"We were little in the 1980's and 1990's. The Banabans had just been through this major lawsuit where they'd sued the British government, and they sued the Australian, New Zealand and British owned mining company for the damages that were done to their island and everyone was quite exhausted after it and they didn't win the case."
While they were isolated on Rabi, the Banabans' tale of displacement and resettlement began to take on a distinctly Pacific expression.
"They created new songs and dances to tell the story of what had happened and these songs and dances were part of their political movement as well to get recognition for what had happened, and to underscore who Banabans were, what their identity was so that they weren't this 'lost people' in Fiji."
While Banaban culture evolved on Rabi, only minimal mining royalties and compensation were received, although an ex gratia payment of AU$10-million was accepted in 1981.
"The land that Banabans were indigenous to essentially was shipped off to Australia and New Zealand over an 80 year period. Twenty-two million tonnes of the topsoil of the six square kilometre Banaba was removed."
And much of what Australia and New Zealand knew as Ocean Island ended up helping those two countries achieve agricultural success.
The exhibition 'Project Banaba' brings together recently declassified photography, film, and archival material which presents an intimate audiovisual history of a little known part of the Pacific and the colonial forces that shaped it.
"It's been quite a roller-coaster ride for Banabans I think since phosphate was discovered on Banaba in 1900 by New Zealander Albert Ellis who became Sir Albert Ellis. That discovery was great for Australia and New Zealand but it wasn't very good at all for the Banabans."
Ms Teaiwa started working on the exhibition 20 years ago while she was researching for her PhD and when she discovered a treasure trove of photography taken by the British Phosphate Company throughout the 20th century on Banaba and Nauru.
"The photographs kind of laid out across the table had a very cinematic effect. There was such an incredible documentation of the building of industry in these tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific, islands that you would never think of plonking a big industrial centre in the middle of, but that's what they did."
Project Banaba is on show in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay, a region which perhaps benefitted most from the largesse of Ocean Island.
It's on at Napier's MTG until September.