In this Book
- Consuming Ocean Island: Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: Indiana University Press
- Series: Tracking Globalization
Consuming Ocean Island tells the story of the land and people of Banaba, a small Pacific island, which, from 1900 to 1980, was heavily mined for phosphate, an essential ingredient in fertilizer. As mining stripped away the island's surface, the land was rendered uninhabitable, and the indigenous Banabans were relocated to Rabi Island in Fiji. Katerina Martina Teaiwa tells the story of this human and ecological calamity by weaving together memories, records, and images from displaced islanders, colonial administrators, and employees of the mining company. Her compelling narrative reminds us of what is at stake whenever the interests of industrial agriculture and indigenous minorities come into conflict. The Banaban experience offers insight into the plight of other island peoples facing forced migration as a result of human impact on the environment.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-viii
- Prelude: Three Global Stories
- pp. xi-xiv
- Preface: On Other Ways of Tracking the Global
- pp. xv-xviii
- Notes on Orthography and Geography
- pp. 20-21
- Part I. Phosphate Pasts
- 1 The Little Rock That Feeds
- pp. 3-27
- 2 Stories of P
- pp. 28-41
- 3 Land from the Sea
- pp. 42-62
- Part II. Mine/Lands
- 4 Remembering Ocean Island
- pp. 65-93
- 5 Land from the Sky
- pp. 94-112
- 6 Interlude: Another Visit to Ocean Island
- pp. 113-117
- 8 Remix: Our Sea of Phosphate
- pp. 150-158
- Part III. Between Our Islands
- 9 Interlude: Coming Home to Fiji?
- pp. 161-164
- 10 Between Rabi and Banaba
- pp. 165-196
- Coda: Phosphate Futures
- pp. 197-202
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 203-206
- Bibliography
- pp. 223-234