94
G. Jackson and A. Piggott-McKellar
understandings concurrently (see Atkinson-Nolte and others, this volume), and, as
such, may be receptive to external information when it is communicated in a culturally
informed and situated manner.
The Missing Link? Acknowledging Unique Ontologies
and Epistemologies and Other Lessons for the Future
This chapter has explored some changes to Bedamuni and I-Kiribati ontologies and
epistemologies through time and considered how this has influenced their perceptions
of hazards and climate change. Through exploring three ontological stages of precontact, missionary, and contemporary, we argue that broadly understanding what
people believe is a necessary first step in any climate change adaptation or disaster
risk reduction project or any external intervention for that matter. While secular
(science-based) discourses dominate within aid agencies, they often do not at the
local level (Cox et al. 2018, 2019; Luetz and Nunn 2020).
In both case studies, traditional and Christian teachings and beliefs are important
factors shaping the worldviews of people, both in the past and today. Yet how this
impacts people’s understanding of climate change and hazards is strikingly different.
I-Kiribati attribute all environmental change, recent and future, to God, drawing on
Biblical teachings and promises to inform understandings of climate change. In
contrast, the Bedamuni have deep faith in God on the one hand—they attend church
and perform Christian burials—yet on the other hand they continue to draw from
traditional religion to explain environmental perturbations.
While some have implicated Christianity as imbuing passivity and reducing
the capacity for autonomous risk reduction (Ayeb-Karlsson et al. 2019), cultures
throughout the Pacific have, throughout history, developed many risk reduction strategies (e.g., surplus creation, elaborate kinship and trading networks) (Campbell 1990,
2014) while simultaneously holding strong traditional faith-based beliefs. Indeed, in
both case studies explored in this chapter, people are implementing risk reduction
strategies informed by faith and by precedent to both experienced and anticipated
climatic and environmental changes. The Bedamuni continue to practice a wide range
of absorptive and adaptive strategies in response to El Niño precipitated droughts
such as transplanting rhizomes from gardens to swamps, creeks, or rivers to preserve
their planting material for when rains return, experimenting with new cultivars and
crops, among many other examples (Jackson 2020). People throughout Kiribati are
adapting to changing coastal conditions by planting mangroves to stabilise coasts,
retreating homes, and planting crops locations of lower exposure. Through utilising this understanding and practice, aid agencies and other development actors can
leverage religious beliefs and institutions to identify culturally acceptable climate
change adaptation, an approach which has germinated in other Pacific Island contexts
(Granderson 2017; Nalau et al. 2018; Nunn et al. 2017; McMillen et al. 2017).
G. Jackson and A. Piggott-McKellar
understandings concurrently (see Atkinson-Nolte and others, this volume), and, as
such, may be receptive to external information when it is communicated in a culturally
informed and situated manner.
The Missing Link? Acknowledging Unique Ontologies
and Epistemologies and Other Lessons for the Future
This chapter has explored some changes to Bedamuni and I-Kiribati ontologies and
epistemologies through time and considered how this has influenced their perceptions
of hazards and climate change. Through exploring three ontological stages of precontact, missionary, and contemporary, we argue that broadly understanding what
people believe is a necessary first step in any climate change adaptation or disaster
risk reduction project or any external intervention for that matter. While secular
(science-based) discourses dominate within aid agencies, they often do not at the
local level (Cox et al. 2018, 2019; Luetz and Nunn 2020).
In both case studies, traditional and Christian teachings and beliefs are important
factors shaping the worldviews of people, both in the past and today. Yet how this
impacts people’s understanding of climate change and hazards is strikingly different.
I-Kiribati attribute all environmental change, recent and future, to God, drawing on
Biblical teachings and promises to inform understandings of climate change. In
contrast, the Bedamuni have deep faith in God on the one hand—they attend church
and perform Christian burials—yet on the other hand they continue to draw from
traditional religion to explain environmental perturbations.
While some have implicated Christianity as imbuing passivity and reducing
the capacity for autonomous risk reduction (Ayeb-Karlsson et al. 2019), cultures
throughout the Pacific have, throughout history, developed many risk reduction strategies (e.g., surplus creation, elaborate kinship and trading networks) (Campbell 1990,
2014) while simultaneously holding strong traditional faith-based beliefs. Indeed, in
both case studies explored in this chapter, people are implementing risk reduction
strategies informed by faith and by precedent to both experienced and anticipated
climatic and environmental changes. The Bedamuni continue to practice a wide range
of absorptive and adaptive strategies in response to El Niño precipitated droughts
such as transplanting rhizomes from gardens to swamps, creeks, or rivers to preserve
their planting material for when rains return, experimenting with new cultivars and
crops, among many other examples (Jackson 2020). People throughout Kiribati are
adapting to changing coastal conditions by planting mangroves to stabilise coasts,
retreating homes, and planting crops locations of lower exposure. Through utilising this understanding and practice, aid agencies and other development actors can
leverage religious beliefs and institutions to identify culturally acceptable climate
change adaptation, an approach which has germinated in other Pacific Island contexts
(Granderson 2017; Nalau et al. 2018; Nunn et al. 2017; McMillen et al. 2017).