Press Release
Remembering Lost Islands
Welcome to Tammy Tabe’s Trial Lecture on ‘Anthropology, Colonial Archives and the
Politics of Migration Memory’, Thursday 11 February.
Tammy Tabe, a PhD Candidate at the Department of Social Anthropology, will defend
her thesis ‘Ngaira Kain Tari - We are People of the Sea: A Study of the Gilbertese
Resettlement to Solomon Islands, Friday 12 February.
Summary of Thesis
Tammy Tabe’s thesis documents the relocation history of groups of Gilbertese people
who were relocated from the atolls of the central pacific island nation of Kiribati to the
Solomon Islands during the colonial period by the British Administration as a result of
overpopulation, land shortages, droughts, and environmental degradation. Despite these
factors, many of these settlers claimed that they were forcefully relocated from their
home islands to escape the impacts of Britain’s nuclear testing, which was conducted on
Christmas Island in the late 1950s.
With the use of colonial archives and oral narratives from the settlers, Tammy Tabe
attempts to bridge the gap of silence that exists between the colonial history as
documented in the colonial archives and the oral history presented by the Gilbertese
settlers, based on their memory of the events that took place prior to their relocation to
the Solomon Islands.
While the thesis encapsulates the entire relocation history of the Gilbertese people in
Solomon Islands, it focuses primarily on Wagina Island where Tabe has conducted longterm fieldwork. In her research, she examines the challenges and changes the Gilbertese
people encountered as settlers in a foreign land, and how they have adapted and become
integrated into the Solomon Islands over the years. Her analysis furthermore
contributes to the body of works documenting the migrations of Pacific peoples who,
due to rising seas and climate change, stand to lose their island homes.
Personalia
Tammy Tabe is of I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan descent, and grew up in the Solomon Islands.
She has a postgraduate diploma in Marine Studies from the University of the South
Pacific in Fiji, and a Master’s degree in Pacific Islands Studies from the University of
Hawai’i, Manoa. From 2012 to 2015, she has been a PhD Candidate at the Department of
Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, affiliated with the research group Bergen
Pacific Studies.
Time and Place for Trial Lecture
The Trial Lecture will be on the assigned topic: ‘Anthropology, Colonial Archives and the
Politics of Migration Memory’. It will take place on Thursday, 11 February, 2016
Time: 15.15 pm
Location: Ulrike Pihls House, Professor Keysersgate 1
Time and Place for Defense
The Defence of the Thesis will take place on Friday, 12 February, 2016
Time: 10.15 am
Location: Ulrike Pihls House, Professor Keysersgate 1
Contact Information
For further information or inquiries regarding the Trial Lecture and Defense, please
contact;
Tammy Tabe: tammy.tabe@uib.no, or the Department of Social Anthropology
Administration: post@sosantr.uib.no, Phone: (47) 55 58 92 50