Narratives of Culture and Development in Kiribati: Reconciling Tensions to Advance Gender Equality

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.