Conclusiones

In 2005 I received an unexpected message from an Australian which read:

Hi, I was wondering if you knew anything about a country called Kiribati? If you do could you please contact me?

–Margie-

Having just returned from a trip to Kiribati, I immediately responded to Margie’s message. Margie’s initial messages were few and far between. She inquired about the basics of Kiribati; its location, language, temperature, and what it was like. Over years of contact I learned that Margie was an I-Kiribati who had never “been.” She was adopted at birth by an American, Jane, who resided in Australia. The ongoing discussions intensified when her adopted Kiribati sister joined the conversations. Kristen was also adopted by Jane a few years after Margie’s adoption. As both were now in their mid-20s, curiosity as to who they were and where they came from seemed to be at a peak.

When I found out that I would be conducting dissertation research in New Zealand, we made plans to meet. The Kiribati independence celebrations seemed like the best time and place to meet since they were being held close the country’s major international airport. The community committed to take Kristen and Margie in and teach them as much as they could about Kiribati after the celebrations ended.

The trip was an eye opening experience for both of them. They had never seen so many people who looked like them before. They had never heard the I-Kiribati language spoken in such fluency and they never imagined they would learn and perform a mwaie.

We chose to go to New Zealand for the 2010 independence celebrations because we wanted to experience an independence celebration. We didn’t know their expectations of us because we are so used to the western culture. It was also kind of shocking because everyone spoke in Kiribati (AInterview103, 2010).

Unlike more individualistic societies where individuals will spend nights in hotel

rooms, I-Kiribati are more comfortable in communal living, especially when they are far from home. Instead of renting multiple hotel rooms, the community rented a marae for the two days of celebration. They ate, slept and practiced together in this communal setting. The experience was different and unnerving for both. Kristen remarks:

One experience I had was the marae, I mean sleeping in the marae. I thought, AH I’m not gonna get any sleep. It’s gonna be so loud. Babies in there, men snoring and everyone were in there. But it was different. I felt safe. I was like wow this is really cool and I fell asleep in like ten minutes. That was an amazing feeling and even when I woke up I felt safe. And I’ve never been in that kind of environment. It was amazing, I felt so safe (AInterview103, 2010).

They spent the rest of the week in Morningside with the community. They learned basic Kiribati words, the Kiribati alphabet, Kiribati dance and talked to several community members about life in Kiribati. Community members inquired about their lives in Australia.

Figure 10: Observing the 2010 NZ Independence

Many couldn’t get over the fact that these girls were Kiribati, looked Kiribati but were not I-

Kiribati, as they knew I-Kiribati to be. One community member commented, they are very I-

Matang, but nice I-Matang (NInterview.10.13., 2010). This caused as much questioning by the

community as they of the community.

Kristen had a strong musical talent which no one else in her adopted family has. This has caused great confusion and wonder as to where this talent comes from. She has written and performed several songs detailing the struggle she feels as an adopted I-

Kiribati. As a way to thank the community for their kindness and support, she performed

several songs one afternoon. One song she performed was entitled Two Worlds.

I wrote that song when I was about eighteen. One verse goes ‘No need to feel so lonely, I may feel torn between two worlds but one is where my heart is and the other my soul’ and for a long time I had this battle within myself to figuring it out whether my soul was in Australia or my heart was in Australia. Whether my heart was in Kiribati or my soul in Kiribati. Performing that song in front of the community made me realize that my heart is with Australia but my soul is with Kiribati. I really want to go back to Kiribati and just see Kiribati. And that was what I got from going to New Zealand and meeting the Kiribati people, your family (AInterview103, 2010)!

On their final night, Kristen and Margie performed a dance which the community taught to them. Performing the dance with the community behind them cemented a relationship that grew over their short time in New Zealand. After their performance one community elder stood up to address the two girls.

We appreciate that you have chosen to stay with our community while you are in New Zealand. We have gotten to know you and you have gotten to know us. Even though you are Australian… in our eyes you are I-Kiribati first. And to have this desire to learn about your own selves sets an example for our youth who may want to forget in New Zealand. We thank you for having the courage to come here and teach them by your example. You show our youth that our culture is valuable. You have learned dance, some words and some manners of I-Kiribati people. The time was short but the memories will last. We hope you send our regards to your mother in Australia when you see her... and maybe one day, to your families in Kiribati. We are not far from Australia and our doors are open to you in the future if you

wish to return. We close by wishing you the blessings of Kiribati, Te Mauri, Te Raoi ao Te Tabomoa (Auntte, 2010).

When his speech was complete, Kristen and Margie were presented with women’s clothing. They were given a tibuta and a bei to take with them back to Australia, as a way to symbolically reflect the I-Kiribati in them.

When we came back from New Zealand, we told our mum everything about the community we stayed with. How they really let us in and really opened their arms. It always felt like they were proud of us for being Kiribati, but more so for being there with them. Everyone told me to say hello to mum when we got back (AInterview103, 2010).

Three months later I made my way to Australia to see what their life in Australia was like. In many ways, it was similar to those of the US migrants: secluded. It was clear that their lives revolve around a ‘known’ and an ‘unknown’ world.

Adoptions in Kiribati function to strengthen ties between adoptive and adopted individuals. The most common adoptions in Kiribati are those between extended family members. Less commonly seen are those adoptions which occur between unrelated families as in the cases of Margie and Kristen. These kinds of adoptions have occurred in cases where I-

Kiribati have taken residence overseas for employment in work camps (Teraku, 1985).

Adoptions in Kiribati serve to unite rather than divide families. This is fostered by feelings of love, that is, love to live together, to share things and to help one another. It creates new bonds and strengthens ties, extending the feeling of love from one kinship group to another (Talu, 1979).

In these settings, fictive kinship relationships develop in place of biological ones. In these circumstances, the exchange of children serves to bring closer together unrelated couples who have become close acquainted to one another (Talu, 1979). Adoptions typically take place when one of the couples is scheduled to return home after completing a labor contract. The adopted child is then taken to the home island of his or her new parents who will raise them as their own

child. They are responsible for the individual’s education and life. The adopted child is free to visit their biological family when they return; however, after visiting them the child would return to their adopted family (Teraku, 1985).

Kristen’s path to Tasmania was a lot more complicated than Margie’s. Her adoption process took her from Nauru to Papua New Guinea and then to Australia. She seemed to bounce between multiple places and families until the age of five. Kristen states:

Margie and I have always known since we were little that we were adopted. Mum always told us, ever since I was four or five I knew I was adopted (AInterview101, 2010).

Kristen and Margie’s seclusion from other I-Kiribati led them down very different paths than any other migrants in this study. They have had to define themselves in different social and economic circumstances than those found in migrant enclaves living in New Zealand and in the United States. While born to I-Kiribati families, life events brought them to call Australia home.

I never saw myself as being different growing up. Although the majority of kids were quite white, I don’t think my friends saw me as different. As I grew older, people would come up to me and ask me where I was from and they tried to guess but they never got it right. I also get ‘why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in warmer weather?’ But I always just say well I don’t know because I’ve grown up here so I don’t know anything different (AInterview103, 2010).

New Zealand children were brought up in a Kiribati community and experienced their Kiribati backgrounds on a daily basis. US children were sporadically exposed to their Kiribati backgrounds through weekend visits, various celebrations, and the annual independence festivities. Kristen and Margie waited over two decades to discover their biological past first hand in New Zealand.