Nauru — books & literature

The story of Nauru

Nauru, a single raised coral island just south of the Equator, was settled by Micronesian and Polynesian peoples circa 1000 BCE, who organised themselves into twelve clans still symbolised by the twelve-point star on the national flag. European contact began in 1798 when a British whaling captain sighted the island and named it 'Pleasant Island'. Germany annexed Nauru in 1888, and the discovery of vast phosphate deposits in 1900 transformed the island's fate. Australia seized it in World War I, and from 1919 it was administered under a joint British-Australian-New Zealand mandate, interrupted by a brutal Japanese occupation during World War II. As a UN trust territory from 1947, Nauru moved toward self-rule and became, on 31 January 1968, the world's smallest independent republic. Phosphate mining income briefly made Nauru one of the wealthiest nations on Earth per capita in the 1970s-80s, but reserves dwindled and mismanaged investments left the country near bankruptcy by the 2000s. Today Nauru works to rebuild its economy while preserving the traditions of its twelve founding clans.

Timeline — key moments

1. circa 1000 BCE

   Micronesian and Polynesian settlers establish twelve founding clans on the island.

2. 1798

   British whaling captain John Fearn sights the island, naming it "Pleasant Island".

3. 1888

   Germany annexes Nauru as part of the Marshall Islands protectorate.

4. 1900

   Rich phosphate deposits discovered, reshaping the island's economy for a century.

5. 1914

   Australian forces occupy Nauru at the outbreak of World War I.

6. 1919

   League of Nations places Nauru under a joint UK-Australia-New Zealand mandate.

7. 1942-1945

   Japanese forces occupy Nauru during World War II; many Nauruans deported to Chuuk.

8. 1947

   Nauru becomes a United Nations Trust Territory administered by Australia.

9. 1968

   Full independence on 31 January; Nauru becomes the world's smallest republic.

10. 1999

    Nauru joins the United Nations and the Commonwealth as a full member.

Top 10 things to know about Nauru

1. Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world by area, at about 21 square kilometres.
2. It is the smallest republic in the world and the smallest UN member state.
3. Nauru has no official capital; government offices sit in the Yaren district.
4. The island was once one of the wealthiest nations per capita, fuelled by phosphate mining.
5. Nauru's flag carries a twelve-point gold star, one point for each of the island's traditional clans.
6. Australian rules football is the national sport, with one of the highest participation rates of any sport in the world.
7. Nauruan (Dorerin Naoero) is the official language, alongside widely spoken English.
8. Nauru has had an unusually high turnover of governments and presidents since independence.
9. The island has hosted a controversial Australian-run offshore asylum-processing centre.
10. Angam Day (26 October) celebrates the Nauruan population recovering after wartime and epidemic losses.

Famous people from Nauru

Say it in Nauru's language

Did you know?

• ★Nauru briefly had the highest GDP per capita in the world during the 1970s-80s phosphate boom.
• ★The twelve-point star on Nauru's flag represents the island's twelve original clans.
• ★Nauru has no capital city , it is one of the very few countries in the world without one.

Nauru culture

• Twelve traditional clans form the backbone of Nauruan social identity, still honoured today.
• Angam Day on 26 October marks the population recovering past a critical survival threshold after wartime and epidemic losses.
• Australian rules football, introduced in the 1910s, became Nauru's national sport after independence.
• Fishing and traditional food-gathering from the island's reef and lagoon remain central to daily life.

Why read Nauru's books

Nauru's literary record is small but precious , oral legends first written down by Head Chief Timothy Detudamo in 1938 preserve a culture that survived colonisation, occupation, and near-ecological collapse. These few surviving books carry an outsized weight.