4
P. D. Nunn and J. M. Luetz
and non-partisan fashion as possible (McNamara et al. 2020; Nalau et al. 2018; Luetz
2019).
Almost everyone living in the Pacific Islands region has a religious affiliation
expressed through regular practice and which influences everyday decision-making
to a degree that many people from outside this region sometimes consider astonishing
(Luetz and Nunn 2020; Nunn et al. 2016). While the roots of such beliefs and practice
are clearly grounded in culture history, they underwent a massive transformation
during the nineteenth century when Christian missionaries arrived on most inhabited
Pacific Islands (McNeill 1994; Nunn 2007). Given that this was also a time when
diseases (like influenza and measles), against which Pacific Island peoples had no
genetic resistance, arrived in the region, huge numbers of them died in a short period
of time post-contact, upending traditional societies and power relations, readying the
ground for missionization (Cliff and Haggett 1985). And while the Christianization
of the Pacific Islands region was indeed comparatively rapid and comprehensive, the
particular brand of Christian belief which evolved in most situations was one that
acknowledged and incorporated pre-Christian practice, as it commonly still does
(Munro and Thornley 1996; Winch-Dummett 2010).
Spiritual and religious beliefs, Christianity in particular, are today part of the
worldview of most Pacific Island people. And where religious beliefs come into
conflict with secular ones, the former generally prevail although it may seem otherwise when it suits political or pragmatic agendas. But at a community level, where
few decision-makers have western-scientific training but where religious practice
is a daily routine, there is no contest. Spiritual beliefs influence almost every type
of decision-making in Pacific Island communities, including that governing how a
community should respond to the effects of climate change.
This point is also important because most Pacific Island governments, especially
those of archipelagic nations, have insufficient capacity (and possibly always will)
to enable effective sustainable adaptation in each of their constituent rural communities (Nunn 2009). Recent research, produced mostly by Pacific Islanders, shows
that the degree to which a community is distant from national developmental cores
(its peripherality) largely measures its ability to cope autonomously with environmental adversity. Peripheral communities tend to have a greater stock of traditional
knowledge for coping, while near-core communities have more global knowledge
(Korovulavula et al. 2019; Nunn and Kumar 2019b).
An understanding of this situation, that which exists around the end of the second
decade of the twenty-first century, is key to the future. For it can be argued that
current trends of growing dependency by Pacific Island nations on outside (donor)
funding for climate-change adaptation are not sustainable. Over the next decade or
so, as the costs of domestic adaptation in donor countries soar, they will inevitably
become far less generous towards their Pacific Island neighbours (Nunn and Kumar
2019a). So the time is ripe to conserve traditional knowledge, to disseminate and
P. D. Nunn and J. M. Luetz
and non-partisan fashion as possible (McNamara et al. 2020; Nalau et al. 2018; Luetz
2019).
Almost everyone living in the Pacific Islands region has a religious affiliation
expressed through regular practice and which influences everyday decision-making
to a degree that many people from outside this region sometimes consider astonishing
(Luetz and Nunn 2020; Nunn et al. 2016). While the roots of such beliefs and practice
are clearly grounded in culture history, they underwent a massive transformation
during the nineteenth century when Christian missionaries arrived on most inhabited
Pacific Islands (McNeill 1994; Nunn 2007). Given that this was also a time when
diseases (like influenza and measles), against which Pacific Island peoples had no
genetic resistance, arrived in the region, huge numbers of them died in a short period
of time post-contact, upending traditional societies and power relations, readying the
ground for missionization (Cliff and Haggett 1985). And while the Christianization
of the Pacific Islands region was indeed comparatively rapid and comprehensive, the
particular brand of Christian belief which evolved in most situations was one that
acknowledged and incorporated pre-Christian practice, as it commonly still does
(Munro and Thornley 1996; Winch-Dummett 2010).
Spiritual and religious beliefs, Christianity in particular, are today part of the
worldview of most Pacific Island people. And where religious beliefs come into
conflict with secular ones, the former generally prevail although it may seem otherwise when it suits political or pragmatic agendas. But at a community level, where
few decision-makers have western-scientific training but where religious practice
is a daily routine, there is no contest. Spiritual beliefs influence almost every type
of decision-making in Pacific Island communities, including that governing how a
community should respond to the effects of climate change.
This point is also important because most Pacific Island governments, especially
those of archipelagic nations, have insufficient capacity (and possibly always will)
to enable effective sustainable adaptation in each of their constituent rural communities (Nunn 2009). Recent research, produced mostly by Pacific Islanders, shows
that the degree to which a community is distant from national developmental cores
(its peripherality) largely measures its ability to cope autonomously with environmental adversity. Peripheral communities tend to have a greater stock of traditional
knowledge for coping, while near-core communities have more global knowledge
(Korovulavula et al. 2019; Nunn and Kumar 2019b).
An understanding of this situation, that which exists around the end of the second
decade of the twenty-first century, is key to the future. For it can be argued that
current trends of growing dependency by Pacific Island nations on outside (donor)
funding for climate-change adaptation are not sustainable. Over the next decade or
so, as the costs of domestic adaptation in donor countries soar, they will inevitably
become far less generous towards their Pacific Island neighbours (Nunn and Kumar
2019a). So the time is ripe to conserve traditional knowledge, to disseminate and