A maneaba, meaning meeting house, is a traditional centre of tribal and national governance in Kiribati. It is typically formed of a high coconut wood roof supported by coral, held together with coconut-fiber string and thatched with pandanus leaves, and the whole community takes part in its construction, with every part of the structure carrying both a practical building function and a symbolic meaning. The maneaba serves a cultural role similar to the Polynesian marae, and in neighboring Tuvalu, formerly joined with Kiribati as the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the same kind of meeting house is called a maneapa or ahiga. Kiribati's House of Assembly takes its name from the tradition, the Maneaba ni Maungatabu, meaning Maneaba of the Sacred Mountain.
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