Abstract:
In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis by the Kiribati Government and its
development partners on addressing issues of gender inequality. Yet, within the literature there
continues to be a contradiction in the way contemporary gender inequities in Kiribati are
understood. Kiribati ‘culture’ is simultaneously framed as the cause of and solution to gender
equality. On the one hand, Kiribati is a patriarchal society, where violence against women is
traditionally accepted and normalised. On the other, violence is vehemently denied as being a part
of Kiribati culture. This thesis argues that where these narratives stem from and who voices them,
matters.
Narratives and counternarratives of culture, voiced by powerful actors in the region, continue to
shape Pacific politics, policy making, and development. These narratives can position Pacific
custom and culture as impediments to progress, incompatible with ideals such as human rights and
gender equality. On are used to justify harmful practices towards the region’s most vulnerable,
including women and LGBTQIA+ communities. It is within this context that the current thesis has
sought to critically interrogate narratives and counternarratives of ‘culture’ and ‘gender’ in the
Kiribati context; revealing the colonial matrices of power that continue to produce these tensions.
Through a decolonial analysis of contemporary gender initiatives in Kiribati, combined with
insights from five I-Kiribati women who have had extensive experience working within genderrelated fields in Kiribati or with diasporic Kiribati communities in Aotearoa New Zealand, this
thesis argues that Kiribati perspectives and worldviews can provide ways to partially reconcile
these tensions and advance progress towards gender equality. However, this thesis contends
Kiribati culture will continue to be simultaneously framed as the cause of and solution to gender
inequality, until the colonial matrices of power are exposed and decolonised, leaving room for
indigenous expressions of diverse identities relationships to emerge and flourish.