Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Women Speak Out! A Report of the Pacific Women's Conference. October 27 – November 2

Gilbert Islands

Gilbert Islands

We are an atoll island and we're scattered over thousands of miles. We have just nothing but few lands and a lot of sea. We've got 16 islands in the Gilberts and 8 in the Ellice Islands. You can imagine how people rely on the radio and this is how we, in the Women's Interest Office, work with the women in the outer islands.

We have to get through to them. We have to speak in Gilbertese, Ellice, and very little English and that's why I think if you are having difficulty trying to put through your methods to the women because of the communication difficulty through shipping, I think the best way you have to work with is through the radio. More or less all the people now throughout the islands depend mostly on radio for their messages from overseas and elsewhere, even through telegrams. If the telegrams breakdown on the wireless, we get our messages through the radio. It is one of the strongest things that people in the Pacific are very grateful to have-this sort of communication with the people of the outer islands.

People in the towns who have many things to socialise themselves with, forget that the people in the outer islands almost live with the radio. This is their only way of entertainment and they listen very intently and they make very page 51 critical assessments from there. You'd be surprised the people who make the talk in the Parliament, the House of Assembly, don't contribute to anything that's going on, even in the newspaper. But it's the people in the outer islands who make criticisms and send them back even if its two or three months late, but their points still come through, and this is through the radio.

And I wish to say how much we in the Gilbert and Ellice depend mainly through our work to get any message through to the women or to the people of the rural area-our main communication is the radio.