Waves for Change: the role of the South Tarawa-based women’s interests program in the decolonisation process of the Gilbert Islands SAMANTHA ROSE BA (Hons), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Submitted in full requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Research and Commercialisation Queensland University of Technology Research Students Centre January 2014 i KEYWORDS History; women; decolonisation; Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEIC); Kiribati; Tuvalu; women’s clubs; women’s interests; border-dweller; Church-based women’s clubs; women’s fellowships; indigenisation; gender; custom; Pacific women; community workers ii ABSTRACT Histories of the Republic of Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEIC)) have failed to fully acknowledge the pivotal role women played individually, as well as collectively through the phenomenon of women’s clubs, in preparing the Colony for independence. In the late 1950s, and in anticipation of the eventual decolonisation of Pacific territories, humanitarian developments within the South Pacific Commission (SPC) called for women's interests to be recognised on the regional Pacific agenda. The British Colonial administration, a founding member of the SPC, took active steps to implement a formalised women's interests program in the GEIC. Acknowledging that women were to have a legitimate role in the new independent nation, albeit restricted to that of the domestic sphere and at the village level, the British Colonial administration, under the leadership of Resident Commissioner VJ Andersen, initiated strategies aimed at building the capacity of organisational structures, personnel, training, networks and communication for community betterment. The strategy focussed on the informal adult education of village women through the creation of a national network of village-based women's clubs. Focusing on the experience of Gilbertese women, this thesis provides a history of the development of the women’s interests program in the GEIC through an analysis of three successive waves of female leadership within the movement. The thesis argues the development of the women’s interests movement as an overlapping progression of through three key phases - from border-dweller women advocating for change in the early 1960s, to SPC-trained community workers providing informal adult education to village women, to the reassertion of women’s Church-based groups by the late 1970s. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS KEYWORDS ........................................................................................................................................ II ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... III LIST OF IMAGES ............................................................................................................................ VIII LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................. IX LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................... X GLOSSARY OF I-KIRIBATI TERMS ............................................................................................ XII STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ........................................................................... XIV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................... XV CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR STUDY ................................................................................................. 2 STATEMENT OF ARGUMENTS ....................................................................................................... 5 GEOGRAPHIC CONTEXT ............................................................................................................ 17 LINGUISTIC CONTEXT ................................................................................................................ 18 NOMENCLATURE OF WOMEN’S GROUPS ...................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 22 GENERAL HISTORIES OF OCEANIA ............................................................................................... 22 POSITIONING WOMEN IN EARLY HISTORIES OF THE GILBERT AND ELLICE ISLANDS COLONY .................... 25 POSITIONING WOMEN IN MODERN HISTORIES OF KIRIBATI .............................................................. 30 GENDER IN THE PACIFIC ............................................................................................................ 35 WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................................... 42 WOMEN AND EDUCATION......................................................................................................... 49 iv CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND REFLECTIONS ON FIELDWORK .................................................................................................................................... 53 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES ............................................................................................... 53 METHODS USED IN FIELDWORK .................................................................................................. 57 REFLECTIONS ON FIELDWORK..................................................................................................... 59 REFLECTIONS ON INTERVIEWS .................................................................................................... 63 GAPS AND LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................ 68 CHAPTER 4: THE ROLE OF BORDER-DWELLER WOMEN IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WOMEN’S INTERESTS PROGRAM ............................................................................. 72 TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES ..................................................................................................... 77 THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATION’S EXPERIENCE OF DECOLONISATION .................................................. 84 THE GIEC EXPERIENCE OF DECOLONISATION ................................................................................ 86 WOMEN’S ROLE IN THE DECOLONISATION PROCESS – A REGIONAL EXPERIENCE .................................. 91 IMPLEMENTING THE COLONIAL WOMEN’S INTERESTS PROGRAM IN THE GILBERT ISLANDS- THE ROLE OF BORDER-DWELLERS .................................................................................................................. 96 BORDER-DWELLERS NEGOTIATING CUSTOM ................................................................................. 99 CONCLUDING REMARKS .......................................................................................................... 110 CHAPTER 5: ‘PASS IT ON’ –COMMUNITY WORKERS AND THE PHENOMENON OF HOMEMAKERS’ CLUBS ............................................................................................................... 112 THE COMMUNITY EDUCATION TRAINING CENTRE ....................................................................... 120 COMMUNITY WORKERS ......................................................................................................... 122 HOMEMAKERS’ CLUBS ........................................................................................................... 129 ISLAND ASSOCIATIONS OF HOMEMAKERS’ CLUBS - IREKENRAO...................................................... 143 FUNDRAISING AND COMMUNITY INITIATIVES .............................................................................. 145 CONCLUDING REMARKS .......................................................................................................... 154 v CHAPTER 6: ‘OUR WOMEN CAN PUT ONE UP BUT BRING HER BACK DOWN’ – WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN THE COLONY ........................................... 157 FEMALE REPRESENTATION ON THE GEIC ADVISORY COUNCIL ....................................................... 160 THE FIRST LADY MINISTER ...................................................................................................... 163 1975 UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF WOMEN ......................................................... 178 1977 WOMEN’S CONFERENCE ................................................................................................ 186 CONCLUDING REMARKS .......................................................................................................... 195 CHAPTER 7: ‘WE CAN STAND ON OUR OWN TWO FEET’- INDEPENDENCE, INDIGENISATION AND THE RISE OF CHURCH-BASED WOMEN’S CLUBS .................. 197 ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES ...................................................................................................... 200 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS OF ISLAND CHURCHES ....................................................................... 202 EDUCATION OF GIRLS ............................................................................................................. 206 WOMEN’S ORGANISATIONS ...................................................................................................