Arariki is a former settlement on the western side of
Orona
Orona atoll, also known as Hull Island, is one of the Phoenix Islands in the Republic of Kiribati. It measures approximately by , and like Kanton, is a narrow ribbon of land surrounding a sizable lagoon with depths of . Numerous passages connec ...
, a remote
atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...
in the
Phoenix Islands
The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiri ...
group and part of the
.
History
It was founded in December 1938 by
Henry Evans Maude
Henry Evans Maude, (1 October 1906 – 4 November 2006) was a British Colonial Service administrator, historian and anthropologist.
Life and career
Maude was born in Bankipore, India.MAUDE, Henry Evans (1926) died on 4 November 2006, aged ...
, a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
colonial officer, as one of the three villages established by the
Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme
The Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme was begun in 1938 in the western Pacific ocean and was the last attempt at human colonisation within the British Empire.
History
Conceived by Henry E. "Harry" Maude, lands commissioner of the Gilbert and Ell ...
after the group were annexed into the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1937. Maude named the settlement in honour of his son, Alaric (later Prof. Alaric Maude of
Flinders University), and left an initial group of ten
Gilbertese
Gilbertese or taetae ni Kiribati, also Kiribati (sometimes ''Kiribatese''), is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in Kiribati. It belongs to the Micronesian branch of the Oceanic languages.
The word ''Kiribati'', the current name of the i ...
colonists from the overpopulated
Gilbert Islands. They were later joined by a further seventy-five settlers in April 1939 and three further groups in 1940 bringing the total population to 394 before the Second World War hindered any further expansion. By the end of 1940 Arariki had become a successful self-sustaining island community under its own native governance and by 1951 the population had grown to around 560. As the population grew, drought meant the settlements struggled to remain sustainable and all three were evacuated by the British colonial authorities in 1963.
Orona (Hull Island) - Phoenix Islands Protected Area
References
Notes
Bibliography
Maude, H.E.. ''Of Islands and Men: Studies in Pacific History''. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1968.
Populated places in Kiribati
{{Kiribati-geo-stub