Music, dance and storytellingOceaniaIndigenous and traditional
Music of Kiribati
Chant, body percussion, songs and dances of the islands of Kiribati
This is the traditional music of Kiribati, made from chanting and other vocal sounds with body percussion, and in modern public performances from a seated chorus with a guitar. The people of Kiribati keep it at festivals and formal occasions, and composers known as te kainikamaen are said to receive new songs from myth or magic.
When is Music of Kiribati kept?
Music of Kiribati is kept at gatherings and major festivals, with no fixed date.
Kiribati music belongs to the islands of Kiribati in the Pacific. Its older sound is chanting and other uses of the voice, kept together by slaps on the body. Songs are made for love, for war, for faith, for children, for the country and for weddings. Composers are believed to receive melodies through myth or magic. Music is heard in villages, at festivals and at national occasions.
What it is
The repertory runs from chant to newer kinds of vocalising, and singers often keep the beat with the body rather than an instrument. A public performance in Kiribati today is usually a seated chorus with a guitar. The subjects are wide. Love songs are the most common, and there are also songs for contests, worship, children, patriotism, war and marriage. Europeans did not reach these islands until 1892, so the music of Kiribati took in far less of outside influence than the music of most other Pacific island groups.
Songs and their makers
Songs were not written by just anyone. Men known as te kainikamaen made them, and people believed the songs came to them through myth or magic. A father could pass that gift to his son. Because a song was thought to arrive from such a source, it carried weight. One that had been sung back to its maker and then let go into the community was held to be blessed, and the word for that is mamiraki. Composers might also put someone else's story into song, and now and then they made a piece simply because they wanted to.
Dances and the box
Dancers perform Te Kaimatoa, danced standing, and Te Buki, danced with the hips. For the set-piece versions of these two, a wooden box becomes the instrument: it is built to answer with a hollow, echoing note when the men seated around it strike it together. Stick dances, called tirere and said as seerere, go with legends and half-remembered history, and are danced only at the big festivals. In 1963 Gerd Koch made films on Tabiteuea of dances and songs from the ruoia cycle, among them the opening kawawa, the kamei led by one dancer, the wan tarawa, the kabuakaka, and a bino song and dance with arm movements. He filmed further songs and dances on Onotoa and Nonouti.
Today
Anyone in Kiribati may now compose and sing, not only the te kainikamaen, because Western music has spread and ways of living have changed. What a new song is called matters. If it is presented as coming from a poem rather than from myth or magic, it is treated as an ordinary piece. To claim the older source without the gift is thought to invite a curse, and Kiribati belief names hair loss and sudden death among the results. The national anthem, Kunan Kiribati, or Song of Kiribati, was written by I. T. Uriam and taken up when the country became independent in 1979. Bata Teinamati is remembered as a leading Kiribati musician.
How Music of Kiribati is kept
A composer, one of the te kainikamaen, is given a song, and a group of singers called the rurubene sing it back to him; after that it is public property and anyone may sing it. A song may also be ordered: someone brings a story and the composer sets it, then teaches it to the singers. At a performance a chorus sits, often with a guitar, and the audience hears love songs, or songs for a contest, a church, a child, the country, a war or a wedding. For Te Kaimatoa and Te Buki, formally danced, men sit around a wooden box and strike it together for a hollow sound. Tirere stick dances appear at the great festivals.
When and where
The music has no single day. It is heard whenever people gather, and the biggest occasions are the major festivals, where the tirere stick dances are given. Two dances, Te Kaimatoa and Te Buki, have their formal performances. The national anthem, Kunan Kiribati, belongs to national occasions, having been adopted when independence came in 1979.
Kiribati is the home of this music, and it is kept across the islands of the country, in villages and at formal gatherings. In 1963 Gerd Koch's films recorded it on Tabiteuea, Onotoa and Nonouti. A public performance today usually takes the form of a seated chorus with a guitar.
What Music of Kiribati means
A song is not only entertainment. When the rurubene have sung it back to its maker, it is treated as blessed and is called mamiraki, and after that it belongs to the community. The gift of composing is understood to be handed down from a father to his son and to come by way of myth or magic. To say a song comes from that older source when it does not is thought to bring a curse, and Kiribati belief links such curses with hair loss and sudden death.
Questions people ask about Music of Kiribati
When is Music of Kiribati kept?
Music of Kiribati is kept at gatherings and major festivals, with no fixed date.
What is Kiribati music?
It is the music of the islands of Kiribati. The older repertory is chanting and other kinds of vocal sound with body percussion, and today a public performance is usually a seated chorus with a guitar. Songs cover love, contests, faith, children, the country, war and weddings.
Who composes the songs?
Traditionally, men known as te kainikamaen. They are said to be given songs through myth or magic, and the ability is said to pass from a father to his son. They also set stories that others bring them, and sometimes write of their own accord.
What instruments are used?
The body itself carries the rhythm in the older songs. For formal performances of the dances Te Kaimatoa and Te Buki, men strike a wooden box built to give a hollow, echoing sound. A guitar often accompanies the seated chorus in modern performances.
Is there a national anthem?
Yes. Kunan Kiribati, which means Song of Kiribati, was written by I. T. Uriam and adopted when the country became independent in 1979. It belongs to national occasions today.
See also
BanduraA Ukrainian plucked string instrument played to accompany epic songs and folk ballads
HalayA traditional line and circle folk dance kept across Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, and Syria.
PoiA Māori performing art of swinging tethered weights in rhythmical patterns.BaiãoA syncopated folk rhythm and partnered dance from northeastern BrazilGood reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Music of Kiribati", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.
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