Tarawa Atoll

Tarawa is an atoll in the northern Gilbert Islands, with a chain of low islets enclosing a large lagoon. Its people maintained ties with neighboring islands through canoe voyages and chiefly relationships. Gilbertese tradition recounts that warriors from Beru reached Tarawa during the campaign of Kaitu and Uakeia, leaving coral-stone cairns to mark their victory. Uakeia acquired Betio, one of the fishing grounds distributed among the victors after the fighting.

In 1788 Thomas Gilbert and John Marshall sailed past Tarawa in the Charlotte and Scarborough while travelling from New South Wales towards China on their return voyage. Their ships did not land, but the voyage placed several of the already inhabited islands in European navigators’ accounts. The archipelago later took Gilbert’s name.