Tragic story of Banaba<\/strong>
\nThat said, the tragic story of Banaba and New Zealand\u2019s role in it – and in Nauru – justify a formal state apology but Teaiwa is right to suggest a rather more ongoing process.<\/p>\nBanaba is vitally important for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n
First there is the brutal business of not only robbing a people of their land, but also of enforced exile to another part of the world. Sea level rise, alone, may well make this more the norm, than unusual. Banabans, how they were treated and their response, offer much to an endangered low lying Pacific.<\/p>\n
And as Pacific states move toward the business of seafloor mining, Banaba offers lessons in issues as diverse as \u201cbeware strangers offering lavish gifts\u201d to \u201cand where do we live after the strangers have taken all the riches\u2026.?\u201d<\/p>\n
What is also alarming about the Banaba story (and Nauru\u2019s) is that their corrupt, illegal and deceptive plunder was done to make, in particular, Aotearoa and Australia rich. The soils of Banaba and Nauru contain motherlodes of phosphate which is needed to grow grass for agriculture.<\/p>\n
Here is the rub: almost no New Zealanders know the story of Banaba or Nauru. And when pressed, some will say, reflecting colonial propaganda, that \u201cwe paid a fair price for the phosphate\u201d.<\/p>\n
No ‘fair price’<\/strong>
\nA simple reply: no we did not. Never did.<\/p>\nAn apology to Banaba is necessary but only after Aotearoa and others come to terms with what they did to around a thousand people who, for centuries, have lived peacefully on a beautiful island.<\/p>\n
Its stark ruins today should remind us that just saying sorry is mostly not enough.<\/p>\n