Timothy Detudamo (1887 or 188811 April 1953) was a

Nauru Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru, formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies within the Micronesia subregion of Oceania, with its nearest neighbour being Banaba (part of ...

an politician and linguist. He served as Head Chief of Nauru from 1930 until his death in 1953.

Biography

Detudamo was born in either 1887 or 1888 in Uaboe District. He was a layman of the Protestant Church of Nauru during his youth, and became assistant to the missionary Rev. Philip Delaporte. In 1917, Rev Delaporte chosen him to travel to the United States to translate the Bible into the

Nauruan language Nauruan or Nauru () is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language, spoken natively in the island country of Nauru. Its relationship to the other Micronesian languages is not well understood. The Nauruan language is one of the languages ...

. To finance the travel, Detudamo needed US$500, which he raised through Nauruan donations. His translation was carried out with the help of Rev Delaporte, a German-American missionary. Detudamo returned to Nauru in 1921. In 1938, he tried to reform the Nauruan language by making it more understandable for Europeans and Americans. However, his reforms were not widely adopted and today the old orthography continues to be more common. In November 1930 Detudamo was appointed Head Chief of Nauru by

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William Augustin Newman following the death of

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. He held the office until 1942 when Japan invaded and occupied the island. During the Japanese occupation, Detudamo served as Governor of Nauru until 30 June 1943 when he was deported along with most of the Nauruan population to Chuuk in

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

. On 31 January 1946 he returned to Nauru and was duly re-elected to the position of Head Chief. Following the introduction of a Nauru Local Government Council in 1951 Detudamo was elected as a councillor for the Districts of Denigomodu, Nibok, Uaboe, and Baitsi. He was also re-elected as Head Chief by the NLGC Nancy Viviani (1970) ''Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress'' Australian National University Press, p105 Detudamo also helped establish the first Nauruan large enterprise, a Nauruan land owners co-operative general store. It was called the Nauru Cooperative Society and adopted the name 'Eigigu' in symbolically depicting the Nauruan "Lady on the Moon" legend. Detudamo died in

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in Australia on 11 April 1953 at the age of 65, and was succeeded as Head Chief by Raymond Gadabu.Viviani, p106 His son Buraro later served as an MP and minister.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Detudamo, Timothy 1880s births People from Uaboe District Nauruan Christians Head Chiefs of Nauru Linguists from Nauru Translators to Nauruan Nauruan religious leaders People deported from Nauru Members of the Nauru Local Government Council 1953 deaths 20th-century Nauruan politicians