‘We Are More Than A Vulnerable Island’: Kiribati Language Week With Roi Burnett

Coco Lance
RNZ Pacific digital journalist

This year’s
Kiribati Language Week’s English translation means to
“strive diligently to fulfil our responsibilities and uphold
our Kiribati identity.”

But for Roi Burnett (Beru,
Onotoa, I-Matang) that English translation doesn’t quite
capture that phrase’s true essence.

“I think ‘Karina
te ang’ has such a deeper meaning behind it,” Burnett
explained.

“It literally means to take a breath, and
‘ang’ can be translated as the wind, the breath or the
spirit. So to me, ‘karina te ang’ means to just always, in
whatever you do … always take a breath and take in the
spirit.”

Burnett, who is of i-Kiribati and European
heritage, was born in Australia, lived in Fiji, but
primarily grew up in Aotearoa.

“I didn’t grow up
understanding my language,” she said.

“I was born in
Australia and we grew up away from Kiribati, but it wasn’t
until I was a bit older and I actually went back to
Kiribati, and I was living and working there for two years,
that I actually learned the language and I was able to
understand it.”

“So it’s been a journey for me, and
one that’s still ongoing at the moment too.”

Following
her undergraduate degree, Burnett spent two years in
Kiribati through Volunteer Service Abroad, working alongside
two women’s organisations.

“Just being completely
immersed in your language, hearing it every day, hearing
people speak to you in the language, just really helped me
to grow with my understanding,” Burnett said.

“It also
just forced me to speak because most i-Kiribati that grow up
away from home, we can understand the language, but we don’t
have the opportunities to speak it as much,” she
added.

She now works alongside a growing movement of
i-Kiribati based in New Zealand, Ara Maneaba, who organise
online language classes for others who want to stay speaking
and learning the te tatate ni Kiribati.

“I think the
first sessions we were all a little bit to speak in front of
each other,” Burnett said.

“But our tutor just does
such a good job at really bringing that shyness away from
us…now everyone has grown in their confidence, so even if
we make a little mistake, it’s okay. That’s how you learn,”
she said.

Burnett added that overcoming embarrassment
is something every learner eventually has to
face.

“Kiribati people, we love to laugh,” she
said.

“So if you make a mistake, everyone will just
crack up. That’s part of overcoming that fear of being
laughed at, I think, is how you really grow on your
journey.”

Reframing perceptions of
Kiribati

Burnett said that reconnecting with her
language has also sharpened her own perception of Kiribati
as a nation, and how they are often spoken
about.

“There’s a common perception that we are a
vulnerable island,” she said.

“Obviously we’re
experiencing the impacts of climate change, so that’s not to
deny the reality, but it’s the way that we’re always being
talked about that can kind of, frame us in deficit ways,”
Burnett explained.

“We’re always sort of talked about
in terms of our smallness or our vulnerability to the
impacts of climate change.”

Those narratives, Burnett
said, often overlook thousands of years of Kiribati
knowledge and resilience.

“For me, I think it’s about
also recognising that we’ve been there for a very long
time.”

“Kiribati people have been there for thousands
of years. We’ve always been able to navigate environmental
change, social change … it’s important when we walk about
our places, that we also remember that we have those
strengths.”

A lot of this thinking underpins Burnett’s
PhD research, which explores menstrual experiences and
reproductive health through an i-Kiribati lens.

“It
was my time in Kiribati where I was working…in the area
of, I guess, women empowerment and sort of gender spaces in
Kiribati, that I really saw the importance of bringing in
our own kinds of i-Kiribati knowledge and expertise,”
Burnett said.

“Especially amongst our women … one
area that I was really interested in was menstruation and
reproductive health. We see these deficit narratives around
our health and our bodies,” she said.

Burnett
explained that there are ongoing issues around water
insecurity, and access to health and sanitation, so she
became interested in traditional practices and perceptions
around menstruation.

“We say that menstruation is
something that’s a bit taboo, but in our culture we
celebrate a girl’s first period. So I was interested in …
what do those kinds of practices help teach us about our
bodies, and how we relate to our bodies?”

Burnett
added that indigenous knowledge is too often overlooked.
Recognising community knowledge is a way of decolonising
research, valuing the expertise of locals and communities
that exist beyond a university.

“I think sometimes in
mainstream research we kind of sideline those other types of
knowledge,” she said.

“But for me, I think it’s really
about embracing our practices and seeing that as legitimate
knowledge as well, and what we could learn from
that.”

Kiribati Language Week ends on Saturday, with
celebrations ongoing across the
country.

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