How is the Blue Pacific Relevant to a Safer Cleaner Fairer Future
i want to also acknowledge that we are
gathered here today
on nunual and nambri country on unseated
land
and pay my respects to nunawal and
nambri ancestors and their descendants
i’m going old school today because in
2020 you just
do not push your luck especially
on disrupted sleep so i’m going old
school with the paper
this evening but thank you so much to
all the organizers
um it’s been a really enlightening
series of talks so far so how is the
blue pacific
relevant to a safer cleaner
fairer future
how many people here have been to the
pacific to a pacific island
put your hand up interesting how many
people went on a holiday
keep your hand up keep your hand up if
it was a great
holiday excellent
so the pacific is indeed filled with
many many
white sandy beaches swaying coconut palm
trees
pineapple cocktails and brilliant blue
ocean surf
but just behind such scenes are deep
histories
of environmental and social devastation
tied to colonial and imperial expansion
and the deliberate transformation of
pacific island environments
the kovit 19 pandemic has seriously
disrupted the international tourism that
many pacific economies
rely on but it’s also opened up
spaces for reflection and the rethinking
of possibilities for new and ancient
approaches to social and economic
resilience
according to the pacific islands forum
leaders the blue pacific
is an expression of our region as one
big blue continent it includes
all people in an ocean of islands who
recognize
their needs and potential who plan and
own their development and who act
collectively
for the good of all rather than for just
a few
the blue pacific is a re-imagination of
a space
once seen as small it actually covers
one-third of our entire planet you can
fit all the earth’s lands into the
pacific
and still have space for another
continent
the world’s oceans cover 70 of the
planet and function
as a critical regulator of the earth’s
temperature
absorbing the sun’s heat transferring it
to the atmosphere
and distributing it around the world
all this drives global weather patterns
and acts like a big
reverse cycle air conditioner providing
heating in the winter
and cooling in the summer through
photosynthesis microscopic
oceanic life provides about half the
world’s
oxygen our oceans are an absolutely
critical
organ in the body of the planet and if
they’re not working
properly the whole system starts to
break down
the pacific ocean is a major part of
that system
and our leaders agree that climate
change is the biggest
challenge facing our islands
unfortunately the ocean and the islands
they surround
are not always valued for this critical
role
the pacific particularly when viewed
from the rim
and from rim countries like australia is
often seen to be more important
from an economic and geostrategic
perspective
it’s a place to battle for influence
the islands and their peoples are
regularly framed as small
underdeveloped and in constant need of
studying aiding and saving
the politics often overshadow the
critical and urgent
environmental issues and these urgent
issues
are not solved by science alone for
centuries the pacific has been as
imagined as the perfect lab
for understanding human and
environmental change and
and resilience but like in most
labs the test subjects don’t really
have a voice or a choice
from nuclear testing programs and other
major military exercises
to deforestation and mining the pacific
has often been the site
of sacrifice for science business
and security projects described as
for the good of mankind
the so-called mankind are almost
always wealthier producers and consumers
beyond the very resource-rich islands
and oceans
today the pacific islands and
particularly our low-lying atolls
are experiencing the effects of global
warming and extreme weather
in more intense and frequent ways
salt water is inundating coastal areas
and fresh water systems
threatening the physical food security
of communities
the pacific contributes the least to
global fossil fuel emissions
and global warming while
disproportionately
feeling its greatest effects
when the oceans absorb more heat and
excess carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere
this changes water temperature and ph
levels
causing ocean acidification and
deoxygenation
this affects ocean circulation and
chemistry
and depletes the diversity and abundance
of marine life
the intergovernmental panel on climate
change reported
that the ocean has absorbed so much
atmospheric
heat that changes in temperature can now
be
felt and observed as far as 1 000 meters
below the surface
they predict the sea levels will rise to
at least 0.4 meters
and perhaps as much as 0.6 meters
if we do not drastically lower fossil
fuel emissions
and keep temperature rise to below 1.5
degrees celsius
for many pacific atolls that are just
around two meters above sea level
this is huge
climate change is at the forefront of
the blue pacific strategy
and pacific leaders have been calling
for global climate
action for over 30 years
in spite of a widely accepted frame that
sees the pacific as small and vulnerable
there are many important campaigns run
by smart
proud young islanders such as the
pacific climate warriors
working at all levels to bring awareness
for the need
for integrated global action
such action however must build on a
diverse
base of knowledge and values including
those of pacific peoples
the pacific meaning peaceful
was named by explorer ferdinand magellan
in the 1500s
but pacific islanders had their own
terms for the oceans such as
tassi moana wasawasa
and marawa these terms included a value
for kinship
understanding care and stewardship
last year i participated in a human
rights forum
with business and legal experts gathered
in melbourne
there was a huge amount of discussion on
finding solutions to support
ethical business practices and ensure
human rights were upheld the problem i
kept seeing
was that human rights regularly appeared
to be divorced
from indigenous and environmental rights
when asked about my views on how to find
balance i said
what you do to the land and the sea you
do
to the people for thousands of years
pacific people were
of the land and sea not apart from it
land ocean sky and people
were in kinship in one holistic
complex
i descend from two islands
in the central pacific tabete where
in the southern part of kiribati and
barnaba in the west i was born and
raised in fiji
but these are my ancestral islands
the word for land is tiapa and
kaintyappa
are the people of the land this concept
of land or place
is inclusive of everything including our
waterways
it is similar to concepts such as vanua
in
fiji aina in hawaii
fonua in tonga and fenua in aotearoa
new zealand while pacific islanders were
master wayfinders traveling
thousands of years before magellan they
were also brilliant in establishing
roots
and connecting to new lands and
environments
our ancestors spirits and deities
emerged from
oceans skies clouds rocks
turtles stingrays spiders and coconut
trees
a system of life evolved where you did
your best
to ensure you didn’t damage or exhaust
these things i have spent 20 years
trying to understand
what happened on barnaba and why it’s in
the dilapidated state
it’s in today i’ll share a little bit of
this story
in 1900 new zealander albert ellis
was sent on a prospecting mission by a
mining company
based in london sydney and auckland
he knew that naoru was made of phosphate
but nauru had been claimed by germany
so he looked for the closest island on
the map and found what europeans had
named
ocean island which is also called banaba
by the indigenous people
it was two and a half square miles or
six square kilometers
near the equator and almost completely
made
of sedimented guano and marine phosphate
ellis and his colleagues arrived rifles
in hand you know
just in case and were welcomed by many
bemused barnabans he tested the rocks
and they turned out to be some of the
world’s richest sources of phosphoric
acid a key ingredient in phosphate
fertilizer
that was set along with nitrogen-based
fertilizers
to power the expansion of global
agriculture
ellis wrote in his journal if ocean
island is what i think it is
there’s a fortune in it if not several
he then asked the barnabans who had
never seen or used money
to lease their land to the company for
999 years
for 50 pounds a year
an x was marked on a piece of paper a
british flag planted
and the men started hauling off rocks
this series of events led to the
establishment of a lucrative mine
that made shareholders very wealthy and
resulted in the incorporation of banaba
into the colony in 1920 australia new
zealand and the british government
took over banaba and naoru to secure
cheap
fertilizer for farmers enhance food
security across the three countries
and expand other agricultural and
sipping
shipping supply chains from
two tiny islands in the middle of the
pacific massive fertilizer and farming
operations grew and thrived
the impact on the islanders however was
significant
people went from eating fresh fish
coconut
and pandanus to tinned meat and white
bread
they went from dancing and composing new
songs about the importance of the land
and sea
to watching hollywood films about
cowboys
on outdoor screens the company shipped
in water from melbourne
and their officials a duck goose and
roasted potatoes
this shiny industrial spot in the middle
of the pacific became a target during
world war
ii resulting in the depths of hundreds
of barnabas
and the laborers bought to mine
phosphate
the barnabans were then moved to war
camps
and after the war to rambi island in
northern fiji
my great-grandfather tenamo was one of
just
700 banabans who survived
this year marks the 50th anniversary of
fiji’s independence from great britain
and the 75th anniversary of the barnaban
arrival
on rambi in those 75 years they have
petitioned the u.n for independence
placed a small occupying force on their
home island
sued the multinational company sued the
british government
received a small out-of-court settlement
lost and rebuilt
many aspects of their culture
experienced
serious governance issues and become a
small
but visible minority in the
multicultural nation
of fiji currently facing
major challenges from climate change
the motto of the rambi council of
leaders is
our god help us
several barnabans including my grand
aunt pelenise alofa
and issenteronga ray paentes are vocal
and widely respected pacific
climate warriors
mining seized on barnaba in 1980 and the
company
packed up and left with no cleaning
clearing or rehabilitation 22 million
tons of
land had been extracted and exported
the island is a mining relic a
post-apocalyptic
scene of the end of industrial progress
with a small number of people living
amongst the rubble
and the old now overgrown colonial
mansions a young american journalist
jana scantieri who spent many weeks on
barnaba
has highlighted stories of asbestos
pollution
and many other health challenges facing
the small population
there the possibility of reopening the
minds
continues to be discussed by leaders
barnabas now everywhere spread across
farmlands
flowing through and polluting other
ecosystems
and like their lands bonnevilles are
also displaced
moving across the seas and transplanted
in new soil that we are not
indigenous to such industrial activities
and histories are
not separate or different from climate
change
climate change is the culmination of
all the effects of all the resource
extraction
land desertification and degradation
excessive production and consumption
powered by fossil fuels and the
pollution of
lands and waterways by synthetic
chemicals
we don’t have too many humans
on the planet we have a small number
of wealthy humans in industrial
countries
who consume way more than others
and leave a disproportionately massive
footprint
on the planet the ocean has
always protected barnaba from
large-scale intrusion but not this time
it took hundreds of thousands of years
to grow this island
and 80 years of mining to devastate it
what islands like barnaba and the blue
pacific can teach us
is how to observe and understand what
happens to people
and to the planet when you exploit such
resources
so what does the blue pacific tell us
about how to move towards a clean
green safe and fair future
there is no stem-based or technical
solution
that will be effective or sustainable
without the holistic integration
of humanities arts social sciences
and indigenous thinking knowledge
and values how do we move towards a safe
clean and fair future
by truly supporting justice equality
and a fair and sustainable distribution
of resources
how do we move towards a safe clean and
fair future
by facing and reckoning with the
environmental
political and social injustices
of the past i do this in my own work by
transforming my research
into public art exhibitions because i
know not everyone reads
academic journals philosopher george
santayana said those who cannot remember
the past
are condemned to repeat it
pacific peoples are very familiar with
the concept of walking backwards
into the future amari proverb
goes to
i walk backwards into the future with my
eyes
fixed on my past how do we move towards
a safe clean and fair
future by paying serious attention
to the blue parts of our planet
if the earth can be imagined as a body
the pacific ocean is a major organ like
the lungs and we
all need our lungs to breathe and
survive
what we do to the oceans and to the
islands
we do to all of us thank you
you