Page 13 - CAMPAIGN Spring 2021

from the British and American governments. We heard of the thousands of lives lost to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK and America and that made us very sad and we pray cure is found.
We sympathised those affected by Covid-19 and send our deepest condolences.
Our Association shall endeavour to seek help from our government too. If Britain and America could compensate, then medical help could be afforded for those affected here, for treatment abroad where advanced medical treatment may be available. Anyway, we shall endeavour to seek help. These are my on-going issues and a mission for me as a chairperson of our Association for the rest of us who were here during the British and American Nuclear Bomb Tests.
These are not isolated stories as there are many more tales of experiences from those who went out to sea and not stayed on land for the tests, being petrified of the bomb tests ... to be continued.
Despite all the on-going ill-health issues and terrible experiences,
I still wish to remain on Christmas Island for I’m getting old here and I love this island, with abundant wealth. It’s so easy to live off the land here with fish so easy to catch, etc
My children also wish to stay here for this is their birth place.
People just arrived also fell in love with this island and wish to stay and live here forever. Life on Kiritimati (Christmas) Island is far better compared to life on other islands in the Kiribati (Gilberts) Islands!”
By Teeua Taukaro Teitiaki
Translated By Terri Teraabo Pollard
TERRI
“Greetings everyone. I’m Terri Teraabo Pollard. I was born on Christmas Island, Kiribati, in Central Pacific on the 28th March 1958.
as the nation. I went back to Christmas Island at the end of 1973 for my school holiday, and my parents came away from Christmas Island then leaving my older sister, Teeua, who was married, and living in Poland village with her growing family.
I met my husband, Mark who went out to the islands as a VSO in 1978, the year before the Kiribati Independence from Britain. I went
to Fiji for a further year’s Teacher Training in 1979, the year of the Kiribati Independence whilst Mark was stationed on my home island of Tabiteuea North. Mark and I taught together on three different islands, got married and we came to England in 1981 with the plan to go back when we retired!
We went back to Christmas Island in 2006 for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Unfortunately, although I thoroughly enjoyed going out fishing every day,
I found the Christmas Island I left is no longer the same. I still wish to go back to Kiribati one day but I would rather go back to my home land, Tabiteuea North, and hopefully I will organise for my sister, Teeua to go home to Tabiteuea with me too.
In support to my sister’s quest and to the many suffering British nuclear test veterans, I acknowledge I had childhood ailments from the age of
9 (a lump in my stomach) which got malignant when I was in secondary school. The doctor who operated to remove my appendix, admitted my appendix was healthy to be the cause of my pains. Apparently I had internal growths hidden under my pelvic bones and so I had a major operation in 1978 resulting in the removal of the affected areas and I had my last operation in 1985 for the internal ulcers and I can only be thankful to have survived them all!
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My experience of the Nuclear Tests were very happy ones. I remembered the tests taking place during the nights time and being blindfolded and covered up under layers of the prickly black army blankets! 😊 Witnessing the giant mushroom rising up into the sky towering over us, then rolling and forming into a fireball and rolling away into the night sky, was all pretty exciting for me as a child. Running around and collecting sweet delicious fluffy bread during these tests' events were memorable episodes.
I remembered going to the soldier’s cinema and getting a whole huge bar of Cadbury’s chocolate and stuffing my face with that, and I remembered going to church at the Church of England soldier’s church. I remembered walking the lengths of the fuel pipelines and spending my time fishing and swimming in the lagoon. I loved my childhood memories on Christmas Island.
I left after my 11+ exam and went to boarding secondary school at King George V and Elaine Bernacchi on Tarawa, the capital island of Kiribati
CAMPAIGN SPRING 2021