KIRIBATI

Introduction

Mauri (greeting),

Kiribati is a country made up of 33 islands with a unique, slightly different culture and dialect. The children are all sent to the main island Tarawa for school. This is where Aresi comes from. The islands are scattered across the Pacific Ocean near the equator. Some are located in the Melanesian area, and others in Polynesia. They call ourselves Micronesians.

Pronunciations - will add videos later

A, E, I, O, U - same as Hawaiian language.

io - yo
nii - long vowel "ee" sound
tia - sa
mwa - "a" - mama
ma - the "a" in "apple"
ti - s
bwa e - slur the two words into one
te - the
r - roll "r"
aon - on
n, te - articles

People from Kiribati tend to "slur" the words together.

Namba (Numbers)
I kukurei ngai (I am happy!)
Ioa ioa (Shake, shake the coconut tree)
I Tamwarake n te nii (I climb up the coconut tree)

Teaching multi-cultural and world musics is more than teaching “music”. By having an in-depth understanding of the music of different cultures ourselves, we will be able to help students sing, play music and gain greater insights into the music of their own cultures as well as other cultures. Once our students have studied their culture’s music from this integrative approach, they will be better prepared to appreciate and respect music from another’s culture. We as music educators, have an important role as carriers of culture. We must present materials to our students through an anti-biased filter and advocate what Derman-Sparks has said, “Differences are good; oppressive ideas and behaviors are not.” (p. x)