Banaba Island
Banaba Island (formerly Ocean Island)
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 Banaba
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| Geography | |
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| Location | Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 0°51′34″S 169°32′13″E / 0.85944°S 169.53694°ECoordinates: 0°51′34″S 169°32′13″E / 0.85944°S 169.53694°E |
| Area | 6 km2 (2.3 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 81 m (266 ft) |
| Administration | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 335 (2012) |
Banaba Island (/bəˈnɑːbə/; also Ocean Island), an island in the Pacific Ocean, is a solitary raised coral island west of the Gilbert Island chain and 185 miles (298 km) east of Nauru. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. It has an area of 6.0 km², and the highest point on the island is also the highest point in Kiribati, at 81 metres (266 ft) high. Along with Nauru and Makatea (French Polynesia), it is one of the important elevated phosphate-rich islands of the Pacific.
According to "Te Rii Ni Banaba—The Backbone of Banaba" by Raobeia Ken Sigrah, Banaban oral history supports the claim that the people of the Te Aka clan, which originated in Melanesia, were the original inhabitants of Banaba (Ocean Island), having arrived before the arrival of later migrations from the East Indies and Kiribati. The name Banaba in the local Gilbertese language is correctly spelled Bwanaba, but the Constitution of 12 July 1979 writes Banaba, meaning "hollow land".
Sigrah makes the controversial (and politically loaded) assertion that Banabans are ethnically distinct from other I-Kiribati. The Banabans were assimilated only through forced migrations and the impact of the discovery of phosphate in 1900. There used to be four villages on the island - Ooma (Uma), Tabiang, Tapiwa (Tabwewa), and Buakonikai. The local capital was Tabiang, now called Antereen.
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