Marapa Island, like many islands in the world, has its own legendary stories, which were known to the Marau Are’are speaking people long before the explorers came to Solomon Islands. This story was told by Mr David Vakeke (pictured, bottom right) to the Live & Learn Solomon Islands CRI team.
The island of Marapa is believed to be a taboo place where the Are’are (Small Malaita) speaking people transcend when they die. Their place of origin is 60-70 km away from this island, whose name means “The Garden of Spirits” in their original dialect, but the Indigenous knowledge held by the community tells them that their ancestors were the first to discover it.
Trees do not grow on the island’s mountains and hills; they are covered with only grassland, and there are certain spots around the island where their ancestors would do sacrificial ceremonies and worship to their spirits. Mr David Vakeke had heard from his ancestors that there could sometimes be celebrations seen and heard far in the distance. Shortly afterwards, someone from Are’are (Small Malaita) would die; the celebration was from the spirits, who were happy that someone new would soon be joining them.
Marapa Island was not previously occupied by as many people as today; Niu is the island that most people have occupied, lying not far from Marapa. But with the beginning of the ethnic tensions between Guadalcanal and Malaita militants in 1999, Are’are speaking people were chased from the Marau Sound mainland areas, using Marapa Island as a refuge. Guadalcanal militants hesitated to land on this Island due to problems with their weapons working there. The Are’are people believe it was the spirits of their ancestors who transcended to the island long ago that protected them.
Life on the island during this time was hard due to the limited resources and inability to sustain a large amount of people, David says. Relief supplies from their relatives on Marau Sound mainland could sometimes be shipped by boat, but restriction of movement was being enforced.
‘To make life more threatening, climate change impacts have put us in an even more devastating position,’ David says. From the year 2000 up until now they have noticed the effect of sea-level rise and temperature increases they have not experienced in the past, and it was wet season during the peak of the encounter, adding further difficulty. ‘It was a blessing that we do not experience much sickness as the body must have been activated somehow because of the fear or adapting to the changing environment,’ says David.
On 7 February 2001, the Marau peace agreement was signed between Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) and Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM), though many people taking refuge on Marapa Island did not return to their main land areas; their minds were not yet at real peace. Not until 2004 did people begin to return to their mainland areas around Marau Sound.
In 2007, after the tsunami hit Gizo in the western province of Solomon Islands, many of the low-lying communities along the coast of Marapa Island were covered by sea during high tides. Since then, they usually experienced sea-level rise impacts from November to February every year. Food shortages occur; however, they’ve managed to survive with their marine resources such as fish, shells and mangrove fruit, and staple crops like swamp taro (Kakake) and coconuts sustaining their livelihoods during those traumatic years, while big clean streams on the other side of the island provide freshwater.
‘The island subsisted their livelihoods even to the point of no hope,’ the community has said during workshops with the Climate Resilient Islands programme team. ‘The island’s natural environment and land gave people food and refuge during the ethnic tension, as nature protected these Are’are speaking people who went there as refugees.’
Today, the spiritual happenings observed in the past are not the same as they were, though signs of those stories can still be felt, seen and heard. But the Indigenous knowledge passed down from their ancestors has helped the people on Marapa make it through the difficult times they have faced. Now that they have realised the trends and impacts of climate change, David says this Indigenous knowledge is what will help keep them going into the future.
Climate Resilient Islands is a New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade initiative, implemented by Live & Learn Environmental Education, with funding provided by the New Zealand Government.
