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J. Atkinson-Nolte et al.
People have lived on islands in the west Pacific Ocean for more than three thousand years (Carson 2018). Their prolonged and unbroken occupation of most Pacific
islands required the development of considerable societal resilience, the remains of
which are still apparent in many island cultures today in both tangible and intangible
forms (Nunn et al. 2017; McMillen et al. 2017).
Yet the global perception of the comparatively high vulnerability of islands to
climate change led to the development and implementation of external adaptive solutions that naïvely disregarded or undervalued such culturally-grounded resilience.
Calls have been growing recently for such resilience to be re-valued and even used
as the foundation of future adaptation initiatives in the Pacific Islands (McNamara
et al. 2020; Westoby et al. 2019). Yet achieving this goal requires that external agencies, who might help fund future initiatives, are adequately persuaded of the efficacy
of cultural resilience in such contexts. This applies especially to the adaptive capacity
of communities and their ability to use cultural resilience to cope with future climate
change, which is expected to occur at unprecedented rates relative to past climate
change.
With this in mind, this chapter reports on a study into the perceptions of climate
change, especially its drivers, on a small remote island in the Fiji group. The people
occupying this island are strongly spiritually engaged and largely disengaged from
secular science, meaning that their understanding of environmental changes and their
responses to it are mostly driven by spiritual beliefs and rationalizations together with
elements of longer-standing cultural resilience. These sometimes fatalistic views may
not provide a perception of climate change which supports the necessary adaptive
response. This chapter first discusses the study area and describes relevant aspects of
its inhabitants’ livelihoods and beliefs, before a short account of the methods used,
then results and analysis. There follows a discussion in which several insights into
the role of spiritual beliefs in climate-change decision-making here are explained,
before a brief conclusion.
Study Area and Context
The island of Ono (Fig. 13.1) is located within the eastern part of the Kadavu Island
group in southern Fiji.
1 Although there is a small airstrip in the west of the group,
most people from the main island of Fiji (Viti Levu) where the national capital
(Suva) is located reach Ono by an 8–10-h boat ride. There are six villages on Ono,
all coastal and on lands that are owned by resident extended family groups (mataqali).
Most people on Ono routinely subsist on foods obtained from local environments,
including ocean and reefal ones and mangroves. Like all islands in the Kadavu group,
Ono is an old volcanic island with fertile well-watered soils in which many crops
are grown. While the people of Ono sell some surplus fish locally, most cash income
1 Note that there is another Ono Island in Fiji, at the southern end of the Lau Island chain east of
this Ono.
J. Atkinson-Nolte et al.
People have lived on islands in the west Pacific Ocean for more than three thousand years (Carson 2018). Their prolonged and unbroken occupation of most Pacific
islands required the development of considerable societal resilience, the remains of
which are still apparent in many island cultures today in both tangible and intangible
forms (Nunn et al. 2017; McMillen et al. 2017).
Yet the global perception of the comparatively high vulnerability of islands to
climate change led to the development and implementation of external adaptive solutions that naïvely disregarded or undervalued such culturally-grounded resilience.
Calls have been growing recently for such resilience to be re-valued and even used
as the foundation of future adaptation initiatives in the Pacific Islands (McNamara
et al. 2020; Westoby et al. 2019). Yet achieving this goal requires that external agencies, who might help fund future initiatives, are adequately persuaded of the efficacy
of cultural resilience in such contexts. This applies especially to the adaptive capacity
of communities and their ability to use cultural resilience to cope with future climate
change, which is expected to occur at unprecedented rates relative to past climate
change.
With this in mind, this chapter reports on a study into the perceptions of climate
change, especially its drivers, on a small remote island in the Fiji group. The people
occupying this island are strongly spiritually engaged and largely disengaged from
secular science, meaning that their understanding of environmental changes and their
responses to it are mostly driven by spiritual beliefs and rationalizations together with
elements of longer-standing cultural resilience. These sometimes fatalistic views may
not provide a perception of climate change which supports the necessary adaptive
response. This chapter first discusses the study area and describes relevant aspects of
its inhabitants’ livelihoods and beliefs, before a short account of the methods used,
then results and analysis. There follows a discussion in which several insights into
the role of spiritual beliefs in climate-change decision-making here are explained,
before a brief conclusion.
Study Area and Context
The island of Ono (Fig. 13.1) is located within the eastern part of the Kadavu Island
group in southern Fiji.
1 Although there is a small airstrip in the west of the group,
most people from the main island of Fiji (Viti Levu) where the national capital
(Suva) is located reach Ono by an 8–10-h boat ride. There are six villages on Ono,
all coastal and on lands that are owned by resident extended family groups (mataqali).
Most people on Ono routinely subsist on foods obtained from local environments,
including ocean and reefal ones and mangroves. Like all islands in the Kadavu group,
Ono is an old volcanic island with fertile well-watered soils in which many crops
are grown. While the people of Ono sell some surplus fish locally, most cash income
1 Note that there is another Ono Island in Fiji, at the southern end of the Lau Island chain east of
this Ono.