Spirited Welcome
Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:40 AM, July 23, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
On arrival at Tarawa Island, the capital of Kiribati we are welcomed by two local councils, a choir, unimwane (elders), and two traditional dance groups. There will be speeches and dances and gifts, but before the welcoming proceedings can truly get underway, a local official tells us, there must be the garlanding – a dance where flower laurels are put on all of our heads. Pretty neat!
Larger photo
More sobering was the speech that came next by Betio Chief Councillor, Teeta Kamariki, who stood up saying:
"If we were to let our ocean be ripped out of its rich and abundant fish stocks, we have nobody to blame for the bleak future of our children, but ourselves."
The Chief Councillor also said something that I think partly explains why we received such a warm welcome:
"The Rainbow Warrior has pioneered and continues to advocate, non-violent resistance to the destructive policies and actions of our former colonisers."
Remember, Pacific Islanders only get five percent of the profit from their own tuna fishery – the rest is taken by distant countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, USA, Philippines, and the European Union to name a few names). Plus, as fisheries in other parts of the world are depleted or exhausted, more and more foreign boats are coming to overwhelm the relatively abundant fisheries here. So, you can easily see where he's coming from (and I won't even bring up the whole thing about nuclear waste shipments and nuclear testing, both understandably sore subjects).
Personally, I found the speech humbling, but the dancers were something else – amazing. They went on for over two hours. Grass skirts, loud leg slaps, stomping, and singing the whole time.
Watching, I got the impression that some of the dances told stories about fishing. When I asked one of the dance masters later, he confirmed my suspicion. He said, for example, one of the dances was about Teraaka – an ancestor renown for his fishing skill. Just as local fishermen do today, Teraaka made lures out of mother of pearl (a shell), and looked for the birds to know where to fish for tuna.
This is an example of how ingrained fishing and fish are in the culture here, which is one of the reasons Greenpeace believes they will be good stewards of these resources - if only they are given the means to do so.
