Maneaba

The heart of any Kiribati community is its maneaba or meeting house.

A traditional maneaba is an imposing structure, with slabs of coral supporting a huge roof formed from coconut wood, 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.

[1] A maneaba serves a similar cultural role to a Polynesian marae.

[2] The sharing of the name is the result of Kiribati and Tuvalu being previously the British crown colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands.