ANZ presents
Nauru - "God's Will First"
 The
Republic of Nauru (11 delegates, 1 VIP) is distinctive in many ways. It is the
world's smallest island nation, the smallest independent republic,
and the only republican state in the world without an official
capital. The oval-shaped island is 26 miles south of the Equator
in the southwest Pacific, 2,442 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia.
 The
indigenous people of Nauru were of mostly Polynesian and Micronesian
descent. Prior to colonization, there existed twelve tribes on
the island, which are now symbolized by the twelve-pointed star
on Nauru's national flag. However, the exact origins of the Nauruans
are unclear, since their language does not resemble any other
in the Pacific.
Due to its isolated
location, birds nested on Nauru for thousands of years, leaving
behind vast deposits of phosphate-rich guano. The island was
once covered in dense tropical forest, but mining for phosphate
during the past 90 years stripped this vegetation, leaving most
of Nauru a strange, jagged landscape. A narrow fertile belt rimmed
by sandy beaches still encircles the island.
British Captain
John Fearn, a whale hunter, became the first Westerner to visit
the island in 1798, and named it Pleasant Island. From around
the 1830s, Nauruans had contact with Europeans from whaling ships
and traders who replenished their supplies at the island.
Nauru was annexed
and designated a colony by Germany in the late 19th century,
and became a mandate territory administered by Australia, New
Zealand, and the United Kingdom following World War I. The island
was occupied by Japan during World War II, and after the war
entered into trusteeship again. Nauru achieved independence in
1968.
With the exhaustion
of phosphate reserves, the government of Nauru has resorted to
unusual measures to obtain income. In the 1990s, Nauru briefly
became a tax haven. Since 2001, it has accepted aid from the
Australian government; in exchange for this aid, Nauru housed,
until early 2008, an offshore detention center that held and
processed asylum seekers trying to enter Australia. In late January
2008, following Australia's decision to close the processing
center, Nauru announced that they will request a new aid deal
to ease the resulting blow to the economy.
 Angam
Day (Angam literally means homecoming), held on October 26, celebrates
the recovery of the Nauruan population after the two world wars,
which together reduced the indigenous population to fewer than
1500. Since the displacement of the indigenous culture by colonial
and contemporary, western influences, few of the old customs
have been preserved, but some forms of traditional music, arts
and crafts, and fishing are still practiced.
 One
traditional activity that survives is catching noddy birds when
they return from foraging at sea. At sunset, men stand on the
beach ready to throw their lasso at the incoming birds. The Nauruan
lasso is supple rope with a weight at the end. When a bird approaches,
the lasso is thrown up, hits or drapes itself over the bird,
and then falls to the ground. The captured noddies are cooked
and eaten.
Representatives
of the London Missionary Society brought Christianity to Nauru
more than 100 years ago. About 60% of Nauruans are members of
the Nauruan Congregational Church; most of the remainder are
Roman Catholics. The island nation's motto is "God's Will
First."
While the traditional
culture has rapidly given way to the contemporary, as elsewhere
in Micronesia, music and dance still rank among the most popular
art forms. Rhythmic singing and traditional reigen are performed
particularly at celebrations and 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.
(Compiled
from information from <www.infoplease.com>, <www.wikipedia.com>, <http://berclo.net/page02/02en-nauru.html>, <www.un.int/nauru/photos.html>. Nauru landscape
photo courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation
Measurement Program.)
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