Nauru

The origin of the first inhabitants of Nauru and when they reached the island remain unknown. A long period of relative isolation is believed to account for the distinctiveness of the indigenous language. By the time of the arrival of Europeans in the early 18th century, Nauruan society consisted of 12 matrilineal kinship groups, each having a chief.

An English sailing vessel sighted the island in 1798, but extensive contact with Europeans did not begin until the 1830s, when the whaling industry penetrated eastern Micronesia, and Nauru became a port of call for vessels in search of food and water supplies. Shortly thereafter a small number of European beachcombers settled on the island, bringing with them alcohol, firearms, and foreign diseases. Intraisland warfare among competing districts escalated, becoming particularly intense in the 1880s. Encouraged by a few German traders concerned about their own interests on the island, Germany incorporated Nauru into its Marshall Islands protectorate in late 1888. The German administration and the arrival of the missionaries shortly thereafter brought an end to armed hostilities. In 1906 the Pacific Phosphate Company, a British concern, negotiated an agreement with the German administration to begin the mining of Nauru’s phosphate deposits, and the operation began the following year.

With the onset of World War I, a small Australian force occupied Nauru and removed most German nationals. In 1920 Nauru became a mandated territory within the framework of the League of Nations. Australia, Britain, and New Zealand were named as the responsible authorities, but in actual practice the administration remained in Australian hands. The phosphate industry was taken over by the newly formed British Phosphate Commission, a joint Australian, British, and New Zealand enterprise.

World War II brought another occupier when Japanese forces arrived in August 1942. In the following year, 1,200 Nauruans were taken to Truk (now Chuuk) to serve as forced labourers on Japanese military installations there. A Japanese airstrip on Nauru became the target of American bombers, and the island suffered air attacks for the next two years. In September 1945, Australian troops again took possession of Nauru. On January 31, 1946, with their numbers depleted by almost 500, 737 Nauruans were returned home.

In November 1947, Nauru became a United Nations trust territory, an arrangement paralleling the former League of Nations mandate. The same three metropolitan powers were the responsible authorities, but Australia continued to provide the actual administration.

The people of Nauru are comprised of 12 tribes, as symbolized by the 12-pointed star on the Nauru flag and are believed to be a mixture of Micronesian, Polynesian and Melanesian descent. Their native language is Nauruan but English is widely spoken as it is used for government and commercial purposes.

– Fruit trees are coconut, mango, pawpaw, lime, breadfruit, sour sop, pandanus. The indigenous hardwood is the tomano tree.

– There are a variety of flower trees/plants but the most widely used/favoured are the franjipani, iud, hibiscus, irimone (jasmine), eaquañeiy (from tomano tree), emet and yellow bells.

– Nauruans eat a variety of seafood but fish is still a favourite food of Nauruans – raw, dried, cooked.