Kiribati’s best-documented older folk beliefs come from the Gilbert Islands, traditionally called Tungaru, where early twentieth-century field notes recorded named taboos, divinations, magic, spirit rites, and omens with island-level detail. University of Hawai‘i Press describes Arthur Grimble’s Gilbertese ethnographic material as fieldwork prepared between 1916 and 1926, so many of these beliefs belong to a historical record rather than evidence of present-day practice.[1]
The word superstition is used here as a broad category. I-Kiribati sources distinguish ritual magic, spoken charms, taboo, divination, ancestor relations, sacred places, and beliefs concerning anti, or spirits. Some entries therefore sit closer to customary religion or cosmology than to an everyday luck sign. The 30 beliefs documented here are not a claim that every I-Kiribati family follows them, and island-specific traditions are identified where the records allow.
Coconut, Pandanus, and Protective Taboos
Agricultural records from the Gilbert Islands preserve several named systems for protecting coconut and pandanus resources through taboo and magic. Tarawa, Butaritari, and Marakei did not always use the same form.[2]
Rabu Protected Coconut Trees From Thieves
Historical records from Tarawa describe te kaoanikai, with a rabu tied to a coconut tree after a protective rite. The mark warned that the fruit was under taboo; the owner was expected to release the charm before gathering the coconuts.
Te Bue Carried the “Heat” of a Butaritari Taboo
On Butaritari, chiefs could protect a tree with te bue, a form of rabu made from a wife’s worn riri. Passing near or beneath it was treated as an offense against her modesty and as exposure to the feared “heat” of the taboo.
Te Bitanikai Reversed a Tree Charm
Marakei records describe te bitanikai, a “magic staff” intended to reverse te kaoanikai. It acted as a counter-charm against a rabu placed on another person’s tree, showing that protective magic could itself have a named magical countermeasure.
Pandanus Fruitfulness Could Be Encouraged by Ritual
Older Gilbertese agricultural practice included a pandanus fructification ceremony using parts of a specially prepared “magic tree,” including pandanus-wood branches. The ritual was intended to help the tree bear well and belongs to ceremonial agriculture rather than ordinary cultivation advice.
Love Magic, Speech Charms, and Sea Warnings
The recorded Gilbertese magical vocabulary distinguishes te kawai, ritual action, from te tabunea, a spoken incantation or spell. The two could be combined, while some rites relied mainly on an object, gesture, omen, or spoken formula.[3]
A Fallen Coconut Could Give a Love Omen
In Na Kimoa love magic, a fallen coconut was thrown and watched as it came to rest. If its opening faced the performer, it was read as a lucky sign; if it pointed away, the desired romantic success was considered not yet achieved.
Non Fruit Appeared in a Na Kuau Love Charm
A recorded women’s love spell invoked Na Kuau and used the fruit of non (Morinda citrifolia). The fruit was worn against the body during the rite, with the intended outcome of attracting the affection of a particular man.
Te Katebo n Rara Sought a Constant Lover
Te katebo n rara was recorded as a women’s spell intended to obtain a constant lover. It invoked Taokarawa and involved a young coconut frond made into a cord and worn at the ankle for a limited period.
Te Aonikie Blessed a Lover’s Mat
Te aonikie was a spell used to bless a mat associated with meeting a lover. Its purpose was constancy: the prepared mat became the ritual object through which the woman hoped her lover would remain attached to her.
Te Taematao Cleared the Path of Formal Words
Before formal speech in the maneaba, an elder of Karongoa n Uea was recorded murmuring te taematao, a magico-religious formula intended to “make clean the path” of his words. This was ceremonial preparation for public speaking rather than ordinary conversation etiquette.[4]
Na Kika’s White Shell Warded Off Bad Fortune
A white Cypraea shell associated with Na Kika was used for personal adornment and for decorating house ridge-poles and was said to ward off evil fortune. The historical source is cautious about Na Kika’s wider origin, but clearly records the shell’s protective meaning.
A Rereba Beside a Canoe Warned of Undersea Spirits
During inter-island travel, seeing a rereba near the canoe could be interpreted as a warning sent from Mone, the undersea spirit land. A protective charm addressed the fish and beings of Undersea, turning the sighting into a spiritual travel omen.
Butaritari Porpoise Callers Journeyed to Mone
An utu at Kuma on Butaritari was recorded as claiming the ability to call porpoises. The caller slept while his spirit was believed to visit Mone, where porpoises appeared in human form; their movement toward shore followed the caller’s return.
Abemama Moon Rites and Family Spirit Taboos
Airam Teeko’s recorded history of Abemama preserves beliefs with unusually clear local context, including moon rites, wedding magic, family spirit deities, and food restrictions. Several are explicitly described as practices of earlier generations.[5]
The New Moon Was Asked to Hold Back Age
An Abemama account says older men and women cast spells and danced before the new moon, asking that their generation not grow old too quickly and that sickness be kept away. The same historical account says the practice was no longer performed when recorded.
Wedding Magic Was Performed at Sunset
In historical Abemama marriage ceremonies, an older woman performed magical rites for the couple when the sun was setting. The rite belonged to the wedding sequence and should not be taken as a rule for present-day I-Kiribati marriages.
Some Families Avoided the Fish of Their Spirit Deity
Abemama tradition linked certain family spirit deities with sea creatures whose flesh the family was expected not to eat. Recorded associations include ray, kingfish, trigger-fish, and crab connected with different named spirits.
Fish Was Once Said to Make Fighters Too Peaceable
One Abemama historical narrative says fish was sometimes avoided because eating it was thought to make a person too peaceable to care about quarrels or warfare. This unusual belief belongs to an older martial setting and is not dietary advice.
Dreams, Anti, and Sacred Places in Later Records
A 2014 reference on religion in Kiribati reports that indigenous beliefs continued alongside Christianity in some settings. It describes dreams, divining, competition magic, sacred bangota, named spirits, and care for ancestral remains, while noting especially strong continuity on some outer islands.[6]
Dreams May Carry Serious Meaning
The 2014 reference says dreams are taken seriously in I-Kiribati life, particularly among people on outer islands. It does not give one national dream dictionary, so any interpretation should be treated as dependent on family, island, and circumstance.
Magic Can Accompany Dance and Sports Competition
The same reference records divining and magic associated with dance and sports competitions, especially on outer islands. These practices relate supernatural assistance to performance and rivalry, but no single competition rite is presented as universal across Kiribati.
Bangota Are Treated as Sacred Places
Bangota are described as sacred places devoted to indigenous gods and occurring on most islands. They belong more to sacred geography and indigenous religion than to a casual luck superstition, showing how particular places can carry spiritual obligations and meaning.
Rakunene and Te-Unimwane Remain Named Island Spirits
A 2014 account names Rakunene of Abaiang and Te-Unimwane of Nonouti among lesser spirits described as still invoked and feared by some I-Kiribati. Their island associations should be preserved rather than turning them into one nationwide spirit tradition.
Some Maneaba Care for Ancestral Remains
In some villages, the same source reports that bones or skulls of ancestors are kept and cared for in the maneaba. This is an ancestor-related sacred practice within particular communities, not a generic story about haunted remains.
Pregnancy, Birth, and the Child’s First Omens
The birth material in the Grimble Papers records fears of sorcery, rites surrounding the first days of life, and an island-specific omen from Nonouti. These accounts come from an older Gilbertese cultural setting and should be read historically.[7]
Pregnancy Could Be Hidden From Feared Sorcery
Older Gilbertese records say a pregnancy could be kept secret because sorcery, called te wawi or te wauna in the source, was feared as a threat to both the pregnant woman and the unborn child.
Food Remains Were Guarded During Pregnancy
The same pregnancy record says remains of the woman’s food and objects that had touched her body were retained. The protective logic was that material connected with her should not be left available for feared sorcery.
A Newborn Spent Three Days in the Umananti
Historically, a newborn remained for three days in the umananti, the birth house associated with the “House of Spirits.” The stay and accompanying rites were linked to Nei Aibong of the horizon; afterward the child moved to another house with new belongings.
A Nonouti Child’s Throw Foretold Voyaging Skill
On Nonouti, the dried remnant of the umbilical cord was preserved until the child could walk and then given to the child to throw into the sea. A long throw was interpreted as an omen that the child would become a great voyager.
Hot Sun Was Said to Dry a Nursing Mother’s Milk
A nursing mother was historically discouraged from walking in hot sun because it was believed her breast milk might dry up. This is a recorded folk-health belief rather than a medical rule; feeding or milk-supply concerns require evidence-based health advice.
Death, Ghosts, and the Road to Bouru
Older Gilbertese death records describe a detailed sequence in which the spirit remains near the living for a time and is then helped toward the land of spirits. These are mortuary beliefs and ritual cosmology, not predictions about death.[8]
Two Dried Coconuts Distracted the Departing Spirit
In one older death account, two dried coconuts were placed in the dead person’s hands as a distraction. The stated purpose was to prevent the spirit from returning to trouble the person’s children or grandchildren.
The Spirit Watched for Three Days and Feared Bright Fire
The dead person’s spirit was said to remain a short distance from the village for three days while watching the body. A brightly flaming fire was believed to frighten it. The account belongs to historical mortuary belief rather than observable fact.
Lamenting During Bomaki Could Call the Spirit Back
During the bomaki ceremony, lamentation was forbidden at the point when the spirit was being sent onward. Renewed crying was feared to draw the spirit back instead of allowing its departure from the community to continue.
The Soul Travelled to Bouru and Neineaba
After burial, one recorded tradition sends the soul south to Nei Tituabine and then north to Bouru and Neineaba, lands of spirits from which it does not return. The belief maps the afterlife as a journey through named places in Gilbertese cosmology.
📚 Roots of Belief
- Tungaru Traditions: Writings on the Atoll Culture of the Gilbert Islands — Establishes the scope and date of Arthur Francis Grimble’s Gilbertese ethnographic field material and identifies the collection as folklore and cultural documentation. (An open-access University of Hawai‘i Press scholarly edition hosted by JSTOR.)
- Agricultural Rituals — Tungaru Traditions — Records te rabu and te kaoanikai, the Butaritari te bue variant, Marakei’s te bitanikai counter-charm, and pandanus-related fertility ritual. (A directly relevant chapter in the University of Hawai‘i Press ethnographic collection.)
- Magic — Tungaru Traditions — Documents te kawai and te tabunea as well as Na Kimoa, Na Kuau, te katebo n rara, te aonikie, the rereba sea warning, and Butaritari porpoise-calling traditions. (A primary ethnographic chapter published by University of Hawai‘i Press and available through JSTOR.)
- The Maneaba — Tungaru Traditions — Records the ceremonial use of te taematao before an elder’s formal speech in the maneaba. (A specialist chapter in a scholarly University of Hawai‘i Press edition.)
- A History of Abemama — Tungaru Traditions — Preserves Abemama traditions concerning new-moon rites, wedding magic, family spirit-fish taboos, and the historical belief about fish and fighting temperament. (University of Hawai‘i Press’s open scholarly text, including an I-Kiribati historical narrative.)
- Kiribati — Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices — Describes indigenous anti beliefs, dreams, divining, competition magic, bangota, named island spirits, and care for ancestral remains alongside Christianity in Kiribati. (Hosted by the University of the South Pacific’s institutional repository and written with Pacific religion specialists.)
- Birth — Tungaru Traditions — Records pregnancy secrecy, protection of food remains and body-contact objects, the newborn’s first three days, the Nonouti umbilical-cord voyaging omen, and nursing-related folk belief. (A directly relevant ethnographic chapter from University of Hawai‘i Press.)
- Death — Tungaru Traditions — Documents mortuary beliefs involving dried coconuts, the nearby watching spirit, fire, bomaki, and the soul’s journey toward Bouru and Neineaba. (A dedicated death-and-afterlife chapter in the University of Hawai‘i Press ethnographic collection.)