296
C. Ledderucci
The Pacific islands and their indigenous communities, popularly considered to
be isolated and underdeveloped compared to the Western world (see Hau’ofa 1994;
Nunn and Kumar 2019 for a critique of this narrative), are the perfect representation of
the contemporary environmental crisis: they embody Nature’s fragility, smallness,
remoteness both in geographic space and time. Nonetheless, the Pacific Climate
Warriors also assert local ways to express their dissent.
Five years ago, our network of young Pacific Islanders began to form under the name of
350 Pacific, to join with the global climate change movement, 350.org. Active in fifteen
of the Pacific Island Nations, we have a unique approach of empowering young people to
understand the issue of climate change and to take action to protect and enrich our islands,
cultures, and oceans. (350 Pacific 2014a)
As shown below, the Pacific Climate Warriors claim a particular and therefore
different strategy to approach the environmental problem, which is the empowerment
of local communities instead of top-down development programs, usually delivered
by international NGOs.
We know we cannot deliver this project on our own. We don’t have big bank accounts, big
funders, or big email lists. That’s why we are asking the international community to continue
to stand in support with the Pacific Warriors. (350 Pacific 2014a)
Here stands a recurring paradox in the Warriors’ rhetoric. On the one hand, they
are trying to empower indigenous local communities, by fostering resilience in them.
On the other, they affirm their peripheral position compared to the Western discourse
and seek global help to fight this battle. This shows they are aware of the idea of
smallness and remoteness of the Pacific Islands, usually attached to them by the
Western public, and furthermore, they can use such a narrative to gain attention
from other countries. Climate change becomes then a political instrument used by
indigenous communities to assert and confirm their agency and their right to speak.
What we do have is a network of courageous Pacific Islanders - from Niue to Tuvalu - that
have been learning new skills and campaign tactics to take on the challenge of achieving
global action on climate change - the future of our islands depends on it. (350 Pacific 2014a)
Their goal is to foster resilience and to empower the local communities with whom
they live and work to create awareness among people about climate change.
In this context, the metaphors proposed by Farbotko (2010a) of the ‘canary in the
coal mine’ and that of ‘wishful sinking’ are helpful. She posits that Tuvalu—allegory
of the entire world—is expendable as the canary, usually carried inside the mine by
the miners to check the safety of its air. The possibility of Tuvalu’s disappearance
makes it a great moral symbol in the eye of the Western public. In the words of the
author: “only after they disappear are the islands useful as an absolute truth of the
urgency of climate change, and thus a prompt to save the rest of the planet” (Farbotko
2010a, p. 47).
The Warriors and their communities have a completely different view about themselves, their cultures and traditions. As observed also by Hau’ofa (1994), Pacific
Islanders do not think about themselves as marginal. This is made clear in the final
lines of his paper:
C. Ledderucci
The Pacific islands and their indigenous communities, popularly considered to
be isolated and underdeveloped compared to the Western world (see Hau’ofa 1994;
Nunn and Kumar 2019 for a critique of this narrative), are the perfect representation of
the contemporary environmental crisis: they embody Nature’s fragility, smallness,
remoteness both in geographic space and time. Nonetheless, the Pacific Climate
Warriors also assert local ways to express their dissent.
Five years ago, our network of young Pacific Islanders began to form under the name of
350 Pacific, to join with the global climate change movement, 350.org. Active in fifteen
of the Pacific Island Nations, we have a unique approach of empowering young people to
understand the issue of climate change and to take action to protect and enrich our islands,
cultures, and oceans. (350 Pacific 2014a)
As shown below, the Pacific Climate Warriors claim a particular and therefore
different strategy to approach the environmental problem, which is the empowerment
of local communities instead of top-down development programs, usually delivered
by international NGOs.
We know we cannot deliver this project on our own. We don’t have big bank accounts, big
funders, or big email lists. That’s why we are asking the international community to continue
to stand in support with the Pacific Warriors. (350 Pacific 2014a)
Here stands a recurring paradox in the Warriors’ rhetoric. On the one hand, they
are trying to empower indigenous local communities, by fostering resilience in them.
On the other, they affirm their peripheral position compared to the Western discourse
and seek global help to fight this battle. This shows they are aware of the idea of
smallness and remoteness of the Pacific Islands, usually attached to them by the
Western public, and furthermore, they can use such a narrative to gain attention
from other countries. Climate change becomes then a political instrument used by
indigenous communities to assert and confirm their agency and their right to speak.
What we do have is a network of courageous Pacific Islanders - from Niue to Tuvalu - that
have been learning new skills and campaign tactics to take on the challenge of achieving
global action on climate change - the future of our islands depends on it. (350 Pacific 2014a)
Their goal is to foster resilience and to empower the local communities with whom
they live and work to create awareness among people about climate change.
In this context, the metaphors proposed by Farbotko (2010a) of the ‘canary in the
coal mine’ and that of ‘wishful sinking’ are helpful. She posits that Tuvalu—allegory
of the entire world—is expendable as the canary, usually carried inside the mine by
the miners to check the safety of its air. The possibility of Tuvalu’s disappearance
makes it a great moral symbol in the eye of the Western public. In the words of the
author: “only after they disappear are the islands useful as an absolute truth of the
urgency of climate change, and thus a prompt to save the rest of the planet” (Farbotko
2010a, p. 47).
The Warriors and their communities have a completely different view about themselves, their cultures and traditions. As observed also by Hau’ofa (1994), Pacific
Islanders do not think about themselves as marginal. This is made clear in the final
lines of his paper: