15 Pacific Climate Warriors and Local Narratives on Climate …
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ideology proposed by the major environmental organizations. Yet the Pacific Climate
Warriors’ campaigns are not based exclusively on social media; they also count on
local initiatives.
Pacific Activism
There are differences between Western and Pacific activisms which are evident and
confirmed by the Warriors as well as Billy Cava:
We were raising people’s awareness and talking, you know, about activism, but Pacific
activism, what does it look like because it is different, it is not like the activism… in the
West. Western activism is rougher. We will not get yelled at. In the Pacific, we have different
methods, different strategies that might be less violent but… which will still give the same
results. (Billy Cava, interviewed on March 15th, 2018 in Nouméa, author’s translation from
French)
These ‘other methods’ mentioned by Cava are commonly used strategically by
the Warriors. Such protests are locally organized and employ a particular strategy to
involve indigenous and grassroots communities. This strategy is built on two parallel
axes, as Cava stated:
We have two axes here in the Pacific, and our two axes are the two… it is the focal point,
namely our culture and traditions, and our faith, that is religion, Catholic or Protestant […].
Because we are very traditional, we are very spiritual. We use these two axes to touch the
indigenous populations’ sensibility. Pacific people are very familiar with these two axes.
That is why we often use them to communicate our messages, to sensitize people about
global warming, and we always use our culture, we organize cultural events, we wear our
traditional clothes… and this, this speaks to people, we are also very proud of our cultures,
you know, here in the Pacific, that is why when we use things like… a canoe and we sail in
the ocean, everybody is interested, they want to come, to participate and at that moment we
feel… there is an energy that rises, you know, and we are connected to this energy. This is…
we in the Pacific call this energy mana, it is a kind of energy that we have in the Pacific. We
have this energy and once we are connected to it we have the impression that we can change
everything: we can change the world, we can change the country, we can change people’s
visions because we know that people are listening to us, when we are connected, connected
heart to heart, connected to people’s hearts. So culture and religion. (Billy Cava, interviewed
on March 15th, 2018 in Nouméa, author’s translation from French)
According to the Pacific Climate Warriors, tradition and faith are the cornerstones on which Pacific societies are built. These concepts can translate and therefore convey exogenous messages and discourses—such as climate change—through
a local Pacific language. In this way, indigenous communities can appropriate these
objects and use them as a political claim to exercise their right to speak and fight
against climate change. The Warriors often refer to tradition as a supposed ‘Pacific
culture’, an umbrella term which can unite customs and traditions coming from
different communities and heritage, through time and space, that nonetheless share
some common aspects. This also echoes the regional identity proposed and promoted
by Epeli Hau’ofa (1998; see also Lazrus 2012), considered to be a useful means to
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ideology proposed by the major environmental organizations. Yet the Pacific Climate
Warriors’ campaigns are not based exclusively on social media; they also count on
local initiatives.
Pacific Activism
There are differences between Western and Pacific activisms which are evident and
confirmed by the Warriors as well as Billy Cava:
We were raising people’s awareness and talking, you know, about activism, but Pacific
activism, what does it look like because it is different, it is not like the activism… in the
West. Western activism is rougher. We will not get yelled at. In the Pacific, we have different
methods, different strategies that might be less violent but… which will still give the same
results. (Billy Cava, interviewed on March 15th, 2018 in Nouméa, author’s translation from
French)
These ‘other methods’ mentioned by Cava are commonly used strategically by
the Warriors. Such protests are locally organized and employ a particular strategy to
involve indigenous and grassroots communities. This strategy is built on two parallel
axes, as Cava stated:
We have two axes here in the Pacific, and our two axes are the two… it is the focal point,
namely our culture and traditions, and our faith, that is religion, Catholic or Protestant […].
Because we are very traditional, we are very spiritual. We use these two axes to touch the
indigenous populations’ sensibility. Pacific people are very familiar with these two axes.
That is why we often use them to communicate our messages, to sensitize people about
global warming, and we always use our culture, we organize cultural events, we wear our
traditional clothes… and this, this speaks to people, we are also very proud of our cultures,
you know, here in the Pacific, that is why when we use things like… a canoe and we sail in
the ocean, everybody is interested, they want to come, to participate and at that moment we
feel… there is an energy that rises, you know, and we are connected to this energy. This is…
we in the Pacific call this energy mana, it is a kind of energy that we have in the Pacific. We
have this energy and once we are connected to it we have the impression that we can change
everything: we can change the world, we can change the country, we can change people’s
visions because we know that people are listening to us, when we are connected, connected
heart to heart, connected to people’s hearts. So culture and religion. (Billy Cava, interviewed
on March 15th, 2018 in Nouméa, author’s translation from French)
According to the Pacific Climate Warriors, tradition and faith are the cornerstones on which Pacific societies are built. These concepts can translate and therefore convey exogenous messages and discourses—such as climate change—through
a local Pacific language. In this way, indigenous communities can appropriate these
objects and use them as a political claim to exercise their right to speak and fight
against climate change. The Warriors often refer to tradition as a supposed ‘Pacific
culture’, an umbrella term which can unite customs and traditions coming from
different communities and heritage, through time and space, that nonetheless share
some common aspects. This also echoes the regional identity proposed and promoted
by Epeli Hau’ofa (1998; see also Lazrus 2012), considered to be a useful means to