“The goddess Tarara is bored. So, to entertain herself, she invents the world. She creates rocks, trees, turtles, octopuses, waves, the moon and the sun. She creates a friend, brings men and women to life and names her world Kiribati. But, one day, everything goes wrong, and the ocean threatens to swallow her island paradise.”
Through the adventures of its blue-haired heroine, the young goddess Tarara, the tale reveals aspects of the culture and mythology of the inhabitants of the Republic of Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands) in Micronesia. Illustrated with relevance and poetry, it encourages readers young and old to question the devastating effects of global warming that is condemning the world of Tarara and thus the Kiribati people as it struggles to preserve its identity.
This tale was inspired by the disappearing oral traditions of the Kiribati people, which have been collected and scientifically studied by the anthropologist Guigone Camus. Her research was published by the Barbier-Mueller Museum Cultural Foundation in 2014.
Author: Jean-Marie Hosatteaka Abaddan, is a journalist, writer and photographer. After having made numerous documentaries and reports for various French television programmes, he has devoted himself mainly to the written press. He worked for Le Point, Charlie Hebdo and Paris Match before moving to Jerusalem. For the past twenty years, Hosatte has criss-crossed the African continent, from Sudan to Gabon and from Egypt to South Africa.
Illustrator: Helder Da Silva is a graduate of the École des Arts Décoratifs in Geneva. He initially designed watch prototypes. Today, his freelance work includes graphic design, illustration, design, photography and cartography. For many years he has collaborated with the Barbier-Mueller Museum and Cultural Foundation, for which he has also carried out photographic fieldwork. Helder Da Silva devotes his free time to painting; to preserve the memories of his travels in Africa, Asia and South America, he produces illustrated notebooks
French edition only.
