All Blog Posts (13)

Continue

Dear Fellow Banabans,

Greetings to you all, yes I guess things are moving at a very fast pace that I need to update all of you in regard our meeting with the Kiribati Government.

From the onset, RCL in 2009 clearly defined its April Meeting a resolution to rehabilitate Ocean Island. The resolution passed seeks the majority mandate of the Banaban people from all of the four villages in Rabi for their referendum to approve the rehabilitation programme, a project proposal that was…

Continue

PRESS RELEASE

Dated 4 July 2010

BANABANS TO RESTORE HOMELAND

Elders to return from 65 year exile

The BANABANS living in exile for the past 65 years on Rabi Island in Fiji are inviting the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Japan to work with them to rehabilitate…

Continue

Banaban Elders living in Fiji are planning to go back to their devastated Island - Banaba (Ocean Island) by the end of the year to spend their final days back on their homeland. Banaban Elders say they will die in peace watching their children working on the rehabilitation project planned to restore their beloved island. This has been their dream since being forcibly removed by Japanese forces during…

Continue

Theresa Ralogaivau Thursday, July 01, 2010 FIJI TIMES ONLINE

BANABANS living on Rabi Island in Cakaudrove have appealed to Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Britain to help them raise $2m to rehabilitate their homeland, Ocean Island or Banaba, from the ravages of 100 years of phosphate mining.



Rabi…

Continue

PROGRESSIVE REPORT-KIRIBATI TOUR

Arrive Tuesday 27^th of April 2010…

Continue

We now have a full report of the Banaba Rehabilitation Project Objectives available: Go to: http://banabanvision.ning.com/page/project-objectives

Ken Sigrah & Peter Crowley leave for a Tarawa tonight. Will meet up with Rabi Council of Leaders Chairman - Dr Paulo Vanualailai on Tuesday to start talks on Banaban Rehabilitation project. This is a major step for the project.

Press Release:



The Oceanica Foundation, as part of larger plan to introduce locally managable solutions for everyday problems to the Pacific Region, has delivered the plans for a Mid-Tech Solar Powered Water Purifier/ Desalinator unit to Mr. Manate Tabakea of the Council on Rabi.

Designed to be assembled on site with mainly local materials, easily constructed and operated by people with little or no technical training. Powered by the sun and requiring no electricity to operate,… Continue

Report from Peter Crowley, Project Co-ordinator, Canberra, Australia

Some of The Banaban Rehabilitation Working Team meeting at Brisbane International Airport on their way to work in Nauru. L-R: Peter Crowley, Ken Sigrah, Gordon Atkinson and Barney Hogan.

L-R: Gordon Atkinson, Barney Hogan, Stacey King, Peter Crowley

The Project Co-ordinator is… Continue

We now have an ABC radio interview available for download as an audio file.
Banaba Rehab interview audio file download

The Fiji Sun 6/18/2009



People of Rabi Island now have a chance to return to Ocean Island when rehabilitation works on their native island is completed. Development plans are already underway to restore the island which was vacated in the early 1900 due to the phosphate extraction by European companies on the island. The phosphate extraction ruined 90 per cent of the island forcing the native… Continue

RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS - Melbourne Australia 19 June 2009



People forced from Ocean Island - or Banaba - in the Republic of Kiribati, by phosphate works have received a glimmer of hope about an eventual return home. At present, some of the Banaban people of Ocean Island are living on Rabi Island, off the north-east of Fiji's second largest island, Vanua Levu. Others are in Kiribati.

They have a… Continue