'I-Matang, I-Matang, Ko na Aera?' Interrogating Discourses of Colonialism in Kiribati Secondary Education

Abstract

This paper interrogates the ways both the people and the nation of Kiribati in the Central Pacific have been officially represented by various socially dominant groups, that is, by colonising agents such as missionaries and colonial officials and in more recent times by I-Kiribati authorities. The interrogation of representations in a diverse range of official 'texts' exposes five major discourses that have been employed to legitimise practices of governance generally, and more specifically, secondary educational practice in this part of the Pacific. These discourses follow one another in a loose chronology but also, to a degree, overlap and most importantly still, inform contemporary governance and education. The discourses include constructions of the I-Kiribati body, cultural authenticity, contradictory liberalism, economic development and universalisation.