Maneaba
Community meeting house in Kiribati
A maneaba (lit. 'meeting house') is a traditional centre of tribal and national governance in Kiribati.
A maneaba is typically a structure formed of a high coconut wood roof supported by coral, held together with coconut string, and thatched with pandanus leaves. The whole community is involved in its construction, and every aspect of the maneaba has a symbolic as well as a practical function.
A maneaba serves a similar cultural role to a Polynesian marae. In the neighbouring islands of Tuvalu (formerly called the Ellice Islands), the meeting house is called the maneapa or ahiga. The sharing of the name is the result of Kiribati and Tuvalu being previously the British crown colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands.
The House of Assembly or Government of Kiribati is referred to as the Maneaba ni Maungatabu (lit. 'Maneaba of the Sacred Mountain').
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Maneaba”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Maneabas in Arorae, Kiribati.jpg by Rafael Ávila Coya, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Tenimanraoi maneaba in Betio, Kiribati.jpg by Obkiribati1, CC BY-SA 3.0
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