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. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

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 Kiribati, Republic ...

group and part of the

Republic of Kiribati Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...

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 Bankipur (Bihar), Bankipore, British Raj, India.MAUDE, Henry Evans (1926) di ...

, 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. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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 El ...

after the group were annexed into the

Gilbert and Ellice Islands The Gilbert and Ellice Islands (GEIC as a colony) in the Pacific Ocean was part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. It was a British protectorate, protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a crown colony, colony until 1 January 1 ...

colony in 1937. Maude named the settlement in honour of his son, Alaric (later Prof. Alaric Maude of

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

), and left an initial group of ten

Gilbertese Gilbertese (), also known as Kiribati (sometimes ''Kiribatese'' or ''Tungaru''), 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 th ...

colonists from the overpopulated

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands (;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this name applied o ...

. 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.

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