39 Fun Facts About Kiribati

How do the islanders themselves pronounce the name Kiribati?

Kirr-i-bass is how islanders say it, because in their language a t before an i shifts to an s sound.

Which vanished aviator do some researchers believe landed on Nikumaroro, an atoll in Kiribati?

Amelia Earhart may have died there as a castaway, but bones found on the island in 1940 were later lost, leaving only a doctor's measurements.

In which country did Kiribati's Ioane Teitiota lose his bid to become the first recognised climate refugee?

New Zealand's High Court called his case 'unconvincing', and he was deported back to Kiribati in 2015.

Which of these imaginary lines runs through Kiribati?

The Equator crosses Kiribati, and its islands stretch so far from west to east that the country has land in all four hemispheres.

Kiribati's Line Islands keep the same clock time as which city, but a whole day ahead?

Honolulu runs on UTC−10, as the Line Islands did until Kiribati moved them to UTC+14 at the end of 1994, keeping the clock but jumping a day.

Foreign fleets pay Kiribati hefty licence fees each year, chiefly to catch which fish?

Tuna follow warm water east into Kiribati's zone in El Niño years, so its licence income swings with the climate cycle.

Caroline Island in the Line Islands was renamed in the 1990s to mark what?

The new millennium: after the date-line shift made it among the first land to reach 1 January 2000, dancers and singers travelled there to greet it.

What is the capital of Kiribati?

Tarawa, the capital atoll, saw some of the Pacific War's fiercest fighting when it was stormed in November 1943.

The largest atoll in Kiribati by land area takes its local name from which English word?

Christmas lent the atoll its name, because European explorers landed there on Christmas Eve in 1777.

Which British explorer led the 1777 expedition that reached Kiribati's largest atoll?

James Cook chose to anchor there to try to get turtles, as the island looked like a good place for them.

Which Kiribati island was the main base for Britain's 1957 hydrogen-bomb tests?

Kiritimati's islanders were mostly moved off the atoll before the first of the 1957 tests.

Ocean Island joined the British protectorate after which resource was found there?

Phosphate was mined there until 1979, and most of the island's people were resettled on Rabi Island in Fiji from 1945.

Which country's doctors arrived in Kiribati in 2006 as part of a medical aid programme?

Cuba also took I-Kiribati students to train as doctors, and twenty were studying medicine there by late 2007.

Which slogan did the US Marine Raiders who struck Kiribati's Makin atoll in 1942 make famous?

Gung ho came from the Chinese short name for industrial cooperatives, which Evans Carlson borrowed to build a spirit of working together among his men.

The bloodiest battle of November 1943 in present-day Kiribati was mostly fought on which tiny island?

Betio's reef stayed too shallow for landing craft when the tide failed to rise, so many Marines had to wade hundreds of yards ashore under fire.

The Ellice Islands became which independent country in 1978?

Tuvalu is what the Ellice Islands became after their Polynesian people voted in 1974 to split from their Micronesian neighbours.

Who was the chief minister whose cabinet chose the name Kiribati for the new state?

Ieremia Tabai later spent four years fighting the government for a licence to run the country's first private radio station.

In a 1979 treaty of friendship, which country gave up its claims to the Phoenix and Line Islands?

The United States gave up those claims but kept the nearby islands of Howland and Baker as its own territory.

Which Kiribati president, in office 2003–2016, made climate change central to its diplomacy?

Anote Tong's government also bought a large estate in Fiji as a hedge against the effects of climate change on the islands.

On which Fijian island did Kiribati buy a forested estate as a possible refuge from rising seas?

Vanua Levu is where Kiribati bought the estate, and the seller was the Church of England.

Who became Kiribati's fifth president in March 2016?

Taneti Maamau's government dropped Taiwan for China in 2019, reversing the switch Kiribati had made in Taiwan's favour in 2003.

Kiribati has used which country's currency as its domestic money?

The Australian bank ANZ runs branches and ATMs on the islands; the government lives largely on fishing licence fees and aid.

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, a World Heritage Site from 2010, was then the world's largest and what?

It covers about 408,000 km2, more than 11% of the country's exclusive economic zone.

Which bird flies over a rising sun on Kiribati's flag?

Frigatebird and sun were to be enlarged by Britain's College of Arms, but islanders insisted on keeping their original design.

What is the traditional Kiribati meeting house, the centre of tribal and national governance, called?

It has a high coconut-wood roof on coral posts, thatched with pandanus, and the whole community helps build it.

What language do the I-Kiribati speak?

Gilbertese took its modern written form through missionary Hiram Bingham II, who was the first to translate the Bible into it.

Kiribati's population is predominantly of which religion?

Catholicism arrived on Nonouti around 1880 via two islanders converted in Tahiti; about 59% of people are Catholic today.

Kiribati dance is distinguished by outstretched arms and sudden movements of the head resembling what?

The frigatebird on the flag is emblematic of the style; formal standing and hip dances use a wooden box as percussion.

Kiribati's David Katoatau drew world attention at the Rio 2016 Olympics by doing what on the competition stage?

Dancing was his way of drawing attention to climate change and the rising seas that threaten his homeland.

Kiribati won its first-ever Commonwealth Games medal in 2014 in which sport?

Weightlifting brought that gold, and David Katoatau built a home after his win, only for the sea to wash it away.

Which Scottish novelist befriended Tembinok', the high chief of Abemama, during a Pacific voyage in 1889?

Stevenson's party was allowed to live there for a time, though Tembinok' kept his island closed to almost every outsider.

Kiribati's traditional warriors edged their swords and spears with the teeth of which animal?

Shark teeth on those weapons left warriors scarred, even though they fought in heavy armour of plaited fibre.

In 1999 Kiribati agreed to lease land on its largest atoll to which country's space agency?

A tracking station operates there and an old airfield was earmarked for the HOPE-X unmanned shuttle.

Kiribati's traditional staple diet was based on seafood and what?

Coconuts were central because the atolls grow only hardy plants, and giant swamp taro was saved mostly for feasts.

Which airline built a seaplane refuelling base on Kiribati's Kanton Island in 1939?

Pan Am's base made the atoll a busy mid-ocean fuel stop until long-range jets could cross without stopping, which ended its role.

Kiribati quit which regional body in 2022, citing a dispute over who should lead it?

Pacific Islands Forum chair Sitiveni Rabuka apologised to Kiribati in a traditional ceremony, and it agreed in 2023 to return.

A mass migration from which island group around AD 1300 added Polynesian ancestry to the Gilbertese?

Earlier voyagers from Tonga and Fiji had also introduced Polynesian and Melanesian influences.

Kiribati warriors once wore helmets made from the dried skin of which fish?

Porcupinefish helmets were brittle and gave little real protection, but the spiny headgear made a warrior look more fearsome.

The Kiribati word wanikiba, meaning aeroplane, literally translates as what?

Flying canoe joins waa, a canoe, and kiba, to fly, a home-grown coinage in a language that simply borrowed the English words for car and rice.