Sustaining Culture and Heritage in Kiribati

Abstract

Abstract Sea level rise (SLR) and coastal inundation leave many heritage sites and places of cultural significance at risk of degradation, disconnection, and destruction. The potential loss of cultural heritage faced by Small Island Developing States in the Pacific requires immediate action. This chapter focuses on a case study from the remote Pacific archipelagos of Kiribati, located in the central Pacific Ocean. This Micronesian nation of thirty-three islands (thirty-two atolls and table reefs and one higher island, Banaba) has been subject to radical landscape change in recent years and will be severely affected by climate change in the very near future, potentially rendering it uninhabitable. Climate change has had the most tangible and significant impact on Pacific Island nations because SLR rapidly reduces the land mass of low-lying islands and contaminates freshwater reserves with saltwater intrusion. Scientists predict that most of the 112,000 inhabitants of Kiribati are likely to need relocation by 2050 when their home islands—continuously occupied for at least 2,000 years—will no longer be a viable habitat. De-rooting an entire nation and displacing it to a new geographic and cultural location due to climate change would be unprecedented. Archaeologists, historians, heritage experts, and Indigenous custodians of the land all need to be part of such a transition process early on to ensure the sustainability of cultural heritage and to address resettlement and humanitarian concerns. To assist in developing sustainable methods for preserving it for future generations, this chapter provides an overview of the threatened cultural heritage (both tangible and intangible) of Kiribati.