Kiribati is a small, low-lying island nation located in the central Pacific Ocean. It spans an area of approximately 3.5 million square kilometers and consists of 33 atolls and islands, with the majority of its land area located less than two meters above sea level. Due to its vulnerability to rising sea levels and the devastating impacts of climate change, Kiribati has been described as a bellwether for the impacts of global warming on low-lying island nations. The population of Kiribati is estimated to be around 119,500, with the majority of the population living on the main island of South Tarawa. Kiribati is a diverse nation, with a varied cultural heritage and a mix of Christianity and traditional beliefs. Its economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture and fishing, although the government has recently introduced policies aimed at attracting foreign investment and developing industries such as tourism and mining. Kiribati has also faced numerous challenges, including the loss of land to erosion, overfishing, and limited access to healthcare and education.

Kiribati is a small, low-lying island nation located in the central Pacific Ocean. It spans an area of approximately 3.5 million square kilometers and consists of 33 atolls and islands, with the majority of its land area located less than two meters above sea level. Due to its vulnerability to rising sea levels and the devastating impacts of climate change, Kiribati has been described as a bellwether for the impacts of global warming on low-lying island nations. The population of Kiribati is estimated to be around 119,500, with the majority of the population living on the main island of South Tarawa. Kiribati is a diverse nation, with a varied cultural heritage and a mix of Christianity and traditional beliefs. Its economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture and fishing, although the government has recently introduced policies aimed at attracting foreign investment and developing industries such as tourism and mining. Kiribati has also faced numerous challenges, including the loss of land to erosion, overfishing, and limited access to healthcare and education.

Life for people on atolls is hard, affected by droughts, rough seas and other adverse climatic conditions, and now, rise in sea level threatens their very inhabitance. No wonder kinship is the foundation of atoll societies, traditional and modern! This book presents a multidisciplinary, retrospective analysis of a Pacific Atoll People living in several countries but held together as a diaspora through notions of kinship. The People have ancestral, cultural, social and continuing residential connections with Nikunau Atoll, at the centre of the Pacific Ocean and once a Cinderella of the British Empire. The analysis explicates their present diasporic circumstances and the pathways through which these arose historically. The intention is to provide a basis for better prospects for succeeding generations from a critical, better-informed standpoint. The analysis relies on the partisan stance of the author, whose kinship ties with I-Nikunau (= people who identify with Nikunau) are affinal, and his 30-year immersion among the People in question. In addition, a large quantity of literature sources and other secondary data are woven into the analysis, as situations and events are grappled with, articulated, interpreted and written into the book. The circumstances are analysed under 14 themes, namely, geographical, demographical, economic, environmental, cultural, societal, etc. The analysis should stir the waters of recent research about Nikunau and Kiribati, much of it concerned with environmental changes making uninhabitable Nikunau, Tarawa and other atolls where I-Nikunau reside, and imagining their resettlement on higher ground, for example, New Zealand, where several diasporic communities exist already. This recent research refers frequently to the social, cultural and economic matters covered in this book, indicating how relevant and important these matters are to the future of I-Nikunau and I-Kiribati. Furthermore, this relevance and importance may apply to the future of other peoples still inhabiting the world's atolls and facing whatever challenges this future may bring, climate-related and otherwise. Abstract in Gilbertese Te Abam'akoro ae Nikunau, e riki inanon ana tai Te Tia Karikib'ai ae Nareau ngke e tabe n anenea kunana ni katabwenaa te Boo ma Te Maaki. Mai ikanne ao a tia ni maeka anti ma aomata ma aomata ake a bungiaki iaona. A m'akuriia abaia b'a ana toronib'ai man inaomata ao ni kukurei. Kaaro ma tiibu a wantongaia ataei karakinan Nikunau, katein Nikunau ao karinean tuan M'aneaban Nikunau. Rikiaia naba kain Nikunau b'a te boborau n taai akekei ni karokoa ngkai. Te nako Tarawa, Nutiran, Buritan ao ai aaba aika raroa nako. Ana kamateb'ai Te -Imatang aei e boboto iaon karakinan te I-Nikunau ma ana kakam'akuri ma ana waaki iaon abana ae Nikunau AO ni boboto riki iaon m'am'a nangaia nakon aaba ake itinanikun Nikunau ike a riki b'a ianena ao tera aroia ni kakam'akuri mani waaki ngkai ai te naan I-Abatera ngaiia.

-A journey to the end of the world, documenting a vanishing culture threatened by climate change -Presented through maps, infographics, and a glossary, all masterfully illustrated Kiribati is an island nation in the vast blue of the Pacific Ocean. Composed of thirty-two atolls and three groups of islands, Kiribati lies halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The largest and best-known of the many coral islands is Kiritimati, where James Cook landed on December 24, 1777, which is why he called it 'Christmas Island'. In recent years the island world of Kiribati has achieved fame for the wrong reason: climate scientists have calculated that many of these atolls and the outer zones of the coral islands will sink into the ocean when sea levels rise as expected. When Alice Piciocchi and Andrea Angeli heard this, their desire to visit grew. Yet, instead of meeting desperate inhabitants sitting on their packed suitcases, they found people who had no intention of leaving. This book is a special kind of travel journal and a masterpiece of bibliophilism. The authors have succeeded in bringing us closer to the everyday culture and ideas of Kiribati's people, testifying to their deep connection to the ocean and the universe itself.