Island ring road in Nauru

The displacement of the traditional culture of Nauru by contemporary western influences is evident on the island. Little remains from the old customs. The traditions of arts and crafts are nearly lost.

Arts and crafts

A Nauruan fisherman hauls in a catch

The inhabitants of Nauru wear the usual tropical clothes: short trousers and light shirts. Fishing still follows a traditional method: the island anglers wait in small light boats for fish to arrive. The custom of fishing by trained frigatebirds has been preserved.

Nauruan folk songs existed as of 1970,[1] while Oh Bwio Eben Bwio is a noticeable folk song.[2]

Whilst the traditional culture rapidly gives way to the contemporary, as elsewhere in Micronesia, music and dance still rank among the most popular art forms. Rhythmic singing and traditional reigen[n 1] are performed particularly at celebrations. At least, a historical form of a Nauruan dance called fish dance in English was record in a form of photographs.[4][5] Known contemporary dances are the frigate bird dance and the dogoropa.[6][7]

Craftsmen make articles of clothing and fans of Kokosfasern and the sheets of the screw tree and use geometrical samples, which resemble those of the Indonesian culture. Also the wood of the kokospalme is used for the production of arts and crafts.

Language and education

The language of Nauru, Dorerin Naoero, is a Micronesian language. English is understood and spoken widely.

Education is compulsory from 4 to 16, in all the schools on the island. The University of the South Pacific has a centre in Nauru located in the Aiwo District and offers pre-school teacher education, nutrition and disability studies and will offer the Community Workers Certificate. The campus offers Audio and video conferencing facilities, library and computer laboratory as well as internet and email access via USPNet are available for students. For secondary and university education, most Nauruans' children must go abroad. During its prosperous years these children were sent to Australia but now were sent to Fiji.

The official national holiday is the independence day on 31 January, but Angam Day, 26 October, is considered as an additional national holiday.

The Nauruan words of the national anthem were written by Margaret Hendrie and adopted in 1968 upon the Republic of Nauru's independence.

Sport

Local volleyball game in Nauru

The most popular in Nauru is Australian rules football. A 12-team senior league operates in the country, see Australian rules football in Nauru and it is a popular spectator sport. Nauru has competed internationally in Australian rules football at the Arafura Games, Australian Football International Cup and Barassi International Youth Tournament. The national team, the "Chiefs", ranked 8th in the International Cup in 2002 and gold medal at the Arafura Games.

Australian Rules Football match (2008)

Nauru's national basketball team made the headlines internationally at the 1969 Pacific Games when it beat the Solomon Islands, which have almost 60 times of Nauru's population, and Fiji, which has almost 100 times of Nauru's population.

Nauruans also play soccer, softball, tennis, sailing, and swimming. Golf is accessible in Menen Hotel.[8] There are only a few sport grounds in Nauru. The only stadium is in Yaren, but it is obsolete and fails to meet international standards. A larger and more modern sports stadium is being built in Meneng, however lack of money has caused the project to stall. The current stadia are:

  • Aida Oval
  • Denig Stadium in Denigomodu
  • Linkbelt Oval in Aiwo
  • Menen Stadium in Meneng
  • National Stadium in Yaren

A traditional 'sport' is catching birds (Black Noddy) when they return from foraging at sea to the island towards sunset. The men then stand on the beach ready to throw their lasso. The Nauruan lasso is supple rope with a weight at the end. When a bird comes over they throw their lasso up, it hits and or drapes itself over the bird, which then falls down and is seized and are roosted as pets.

Eakabarere is a traditional form of Nauruan wrestling. Weightlifting is also one of the more traditional sports in Nauru.

Notes

  1. ↑ Indirectly influenced by German colonialism, reigen in this cultural context is a German word that implies styles of circular-moving dances in Nauru's historical past, implying that historical Nauruan traditional dances tend to be informal.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Viviani, Nancy (1970). Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress (PDF). Canberra: ANU Press. p. 158.
  2. ↑ "Songs & Rhymes From Nauru". Mama Lisa's World.
  3. ↑ Fabricius, Wilhelm (1992). Nauru: 1888-1900: An account in German and English based on official records of the Colonial Section of the German Foreign Office held by the Deutsches Zentralarchiv in Potsdam (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University. p. 271. ISBN 978-0731513673. The Nauruan dances which I have seen are not notable for their wealth of distinct figures. They are accompanied by singing and consist in tripping to and fro, swaying the body, slapping the thighs and chest and making turns.
  4. ↑ Hunting the Collectors: Pacific Collections in Australian Museums, Art Galleries and Archives. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2014. p. 159. ISBN 978-1443871006.
  5. ↑ Oates, John F. (1999-10-19). Myth and Reality in the Rain Forest: How Conservation Strategies are Failing in West Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. XI. ISBN 978-0520222526.
  6. ↑ The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Australia and the Pacific Islands Vol.9. Milton Park: Taylor & Francis. 2017. p. 450. ISBN 978-1351544320. At the Pacific Festival of Arts in 1985 and 1988, sixth-graders at the Nauru Primary School presented the frigate bird (iti), a Nauruan dance. The students practiced daily for two months. The boys clapped and sang while the girls danced, por-traying te birds' flight and perching.... In 1994, at the Children's Convention in Fukuoka, Japan, ten eleven-year-old boys and girls from Nauru performed the dogoropa, a dance with sticks, which men and women from Nauru had performed at the Festival of Arts in 1980.
  7. ↑ "Let's Meet the World: Nauru". Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea. 2012-08-07.
  8. ↑ Nauru Business Law Handbook Volume 1: Strategic Information and Basic Laws. International Business Publications, USA. 2013. p. 108. ISBN 978-1438770598.

See also

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