15 Pacific Climate Warriors and Local Narratives on Climate …
299
Campaigning in Australia and the Vatican City
Two cases are now analyzed representing the different forms in which the Pacific
Climate Warriors have demonstrated their dissent against Western immobility
towards climate change and its impacts in the Pacific Islands region. The first case
explores the Newcastle canoe blockade, while the second one examines the Warriors’
journey to the Vatican.
One of the first protests took place in Newcastle, Australia, in 2014. On October
17th, numerous activists aboard traditional canoes blocked the entrance of the wharf,
the world’s largest coal export port. This action drew hundreds of people who flocked
to the beaches near the wharf, to show their support (see also Fair 2015; McNamara
and Farbotko 2017).
Mikaele Maiava, Warrior from Tokelau, spoke at the conference “Interactive
conversation on advocacy in the Pacific”, that took place in Wellington, New Zealand,
in February 2018. He argued that during Newcastle’s protest in 2014, the Australian
Police destroyed one of the traditional canoes used by the activists. The Warriors’
resistance, in the words of Maiava (2018), “was a symbol of strength, that was a
symbol of resilience, that was a symbol of who we are. We are resilient! We are
people of the land; we are people of the ocean!”
The stress is put on the relation between Pacific communities and two fundamental
elements in Islanders’ lives: on one hand, the land—in which they are rooted; on the
other, the ocean linking the Pacific Islands. During the same conference Maiava
stated:
The land is everything to us. They ask us if we are climate refugees. We are not climate
refugees: we are people. We are people with a homeland just as much as you people from
up there in the North. What makes you think that we will agree to say that we are climate
refugees? No, we don’t. Our land is our everything. (Maiava 2018)
Once again the focus is put on the land and the rootedness of indigenous communities. Yet the Pacific Islands region is also well known for the high mobility of indigenous societies (Nunn 2007). To what extent is climate change forcing people to move?
And do these people really want to relocate somewhere else? Similar questions were
raised by numerous scholars who have investigated topics as mobility, migration, and
attachment to place in the Pacific Islands region (Farbotko and Lazrus 2012; Kelman
2010; McMichel and Katonivualiku 2020; Mortreux et al. 2018; Piggott-McKellar
et al. 2019). Mobility and attachment to place are two fundamental issues that must
be widely explored and in which further research is required to better understand
the local perspectives. These issues appear to be opposite, at first sight, yet they
are linked to one another in assuming the inevitability of climate change and its
consequences. Pacific Islanders envision mobility and migration in the worst-case
scenario (Kempf and Hermann 2014) but they are also raising people’s awareness
and promoting environmentally-conscious behaviours affirming their strong agency
(Steiner 2015).
Campaigning in Australia continued after the canoe blockade. Further initiatives
were set in motion: Frontline Truths aimed to collect stories by activists from different
299
Campaigning in Australia and the Vatican City
Two cases are now analyzed representing the different forms in which the Pacific
Climate Warriors have demonstrated their dissent against Western immobility
towards climate change and its impacts in the Pacific Islands region. The first case
explores the Newcastle canoe blockade, while the second one examines the Warriors’
journey to the Vatican.
One of the first protests took place in Newcastle, Australia, in 2014. On October
17th, numerous activists aboard traditional canoes blocked the entrance of the wharf,
the world’s largest coal export port. This action drew hundreds of people who flocked
to the beaches near the wharf, to show their support (see also Fair 2015; McNamara
and Farbotko 2017).
Mikaele Maiava, Warrior from Tokelau, spoke at the conference “Interactive
conversation on advocacy in the Pacific”, that took place in Wellington, New Zealand,
in February 2018. He argued that during Newcastle’s protest in 2014, the Australian
Police destroyed one of the traditional canoes used by the activists. The Warriors’
resistance, in the words of Maiava (2018), “was a symbol of strength, that was a
symbol of resilience, that was a symbol of who we are. We are resilient! We are
people of the land; we are people of the ocean!”
The stress is put on the relation between Pacific communities and two fundamental
elements in Islanders’ lives: on one hand, the land—in which they are rooted; on the
other, the ocean linking the Pacific Islands. During the same conference Maiava
stated:
The land is everything to us. They ask us if we are climate refugees. We are not climate
refugees: we are people. We are people with a homeland just as much as you people from
up there in the North. What makes you think that we will agree to say that we are climate
refugees? No, we don’t. Our land is our everything. (Maiava 2018)
Once again the focus is put on the land and the rootedness of indigenous communities. Yet the Pacific Islands region is also well known for the high mobility of indigenous societies (Nunn 2007). To what extent is climate change forcing people to move?
And do these people really want to relocate somewhere else? Similar questions were
raised by numerous scholars who have investigated topics as mobility, migration, and
attachment to place in the Pacific Islands region (Farbotko and Lazrus 2012; Kelman
2010; McMichel and Katonivualiku 2020; Mortreux et al. 2018; Piggott-McKellar
et al. 2019). Mobility and attachment to place are two fundamental issues that must
be widely explored and in which further research is required to better understand
the local perspectives. These issues appear to be opposite, at first sight, yet they
are linked to one another in assuming the inevitability of climate change and its
consequences. Pacific Islanders envision mobility and migration in the worst-case
scenario (Kempf and Hermann 2014) but they are also raising people’s awareness
and promoting environmentally-conscious behaviours affirming their strong agency
(Steiner 2015).
Campaigning in Australia continued after the canoe blockade. Further initiatives
were set in motion: Frontline Truths aimed to collect stories by activists from different