Joanne Dufour shares her inspiring trip to Kiribati with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Presenting her slide show of visits to communities across the island nation and meetings with government officials, religious groups, and local residents. She discusses Kiribati’s history as a nuclear weapons testing site where 34 tests were conducted between 1957 and 1962 by the UK and US, impacting both military personnel and civilian communities. Joanne highlighted the resilience and creativity of the Kiribati people, despite their poverty, who use traditional building methods with pandanus leaves and coconut trees all found on the island. Their vibrant cultural practices include traditional dress-making. Joanne shared that she was wearing traditional clothing from the area, including a dress with beads, as a sign of respect.
The trip’s main goal was to establish a Justice Peace Center in Kiribati to support survivors and advocate for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Joanne discussed the pronunciation and spelling of the island name Kiribati, explaining the spelling because of a missing letter on a typewriter.
Kiribati is a special country located at the intersection of the equator and international date line, where the sun rises before anywhere else in the world. Her slides show the country covering over a million square miles across 33 atolls, with some islands being very narrow. These islands that may not exist forever due to rising sea levels.
The team met with various groups including the New Zealand and Kiribati ambassadors, interfaith communities, and university representatives to gather support for the center, to assist victims and remediate contaminated environments as required by the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The team received positive responses from multiple groups, including the Latter-day Saints, Assembly of God church, and the University of the South Pacific, with strong support expressed for the center’s establishment. They successfully engaged with 30 community members who were impacted by the testing, and the group ended their meeting with a unified chant of “TEKEROY” which translates to “peace” in the local language.
