Karoro makes history
SOME women on Rabi wanted the first woman elected to the island council in 1996 removed because they said a woman could not be an elder under Banaban custom.
According to an article published by on December 4 that year, the move was led by the outgoing chairman of Rabi Island Council, Tekoti Rotan, but was likely to be resisted.
It was expected to be opposed by the village which elected the woman, Makin Karoro.
The council was headed by former permanent secretary for Primary Industries John Teaiwa.
Ms Karoro came out fighting and vowed she would take up the chairmanship.
“In our custom women and men are the same level,” she had said.
“In our custom, if a man is married to a woman, the man moves and stays with the woman’s family and on the woman’s property.”
“So we have all the right to speak out. We have the right to manage our household.”
Ms Karoro said Rabi women had been trying for years to get a seat in the council and she succeeded in her third attempt.
The former schoolteacher and grandmother broke convention and tradition when she became a councillor when the results were announced.
She was elected the elder member from Tabwewa
Village where she was one of three women who contested the seat as elders. The other women were Rambi Woodrow and Teabo Rangaba.
The protesting group was threatening to seek relief from the court if the matter was not resolved by the new council.
“In our custom a woman is never an elder,” Mr Rotan said.
“I know I would be very unpopular but someone has to do the dirty work. If this matter is allowed now, then it would be accepted in the future.”
Mr Rotan, from the influential Rotan family, said he would be consulting the elders, beginning with those from Tabwewa Village.
“We are prepared to go to court, if need be.”
Mr Rotan said he did not object before the election because he wanted to see that the administration of the island was transferred to the people.
But his position came as a surprise to the new councillors and to those who voted for Ms Karoro.
Mr Teaiwa had warmly embraced the election of Ms Karoro when the results were announced.
In our custom, if a man is married, the man moves and stays with the woman’s family...
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Makin Karoro