15 Pacific Climate Warriors and Local Narratives on Climate …
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attachment to place) is well expressed by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (2017, pp. 70–73), a
Marshallese poet and climate activist. In her words:
[…] men say that one day that lagoon will devour you
they say it will gnaw at the shoreline chew at the roots of your breadfruit trees
gulp down rows of your seawalls
and crunch your island’s shattered bones
they say you, your daughter and your granddaughter too
will wander rootless
with only a passport to call home […]
This sense of urgency is juxtaposed to a reassuring future on low-lying islands,
as mirrored in the following lines of “Dear Matafele Peinam” by Jetnil-Kijiner:
[…] no one
will come and devour you
no greedy whale of a company sharking through political seas no backwater
bullying of businesses with broken morals
no blindfolded bureaucracies gonna push this mother ocean over
the edge
no one’s drowning, baby
no one’s moving no one’s losing their homeland
no one’s gonna become a climate change refugee
[…] because, baby, we are going to fight!
The use of indigenous concepts and the process of their revitalization, to spread
a clear message to fight climate change, places social actors like the Warriors in the
flow of globalization, making them protagonists of protests and social movements.
As passeurs culturels they can cross borders and make sense of the phenomena
that are constantly running over them. They can translate exogenous concepts and
make them understandable to local communities. They can legitimately appropriate
Western narratives that are then indigenized.
Conclusions
After exploring the Pacific Climate Warriors’ rhetoric and narratives, the agency
of indigenous advocates, which is usually hidden by Western discourse, emerges
clearly. Yet, further research could investigate the reception of these kinds of protests
among local communities. The Warriors’ transnational and globalized communication conveys messages that could not be fully and deeply understood and embraced by
305
attachment to place) is well expressed by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (2017, pp. 70–73), a
Marshallese poet and climate activist. In her words:
[…] men say that one day that lagoon will devour you
they say it will gnaw at the shoreline chew at the roots of your breadfruit trees
gulp down rows of your seawalls
and crunch your island’s shattered bones
they say you, your daughter and your granddaughter too
will wander rootless
with only a passport to call home […]
This sense of urgency is juxtaposed to a reassuring future on low-lying islands,
as mirrored in the following lines of “Dear Matafele Peinam” by Jetnil-Kijiner:
[…] no one
will come and devour you
no greedy whale of a company sharking through political seas no backwater
bullying of businesses with broken morals
no blindfolded bureaucracies gonna push this mother ocean over
the edge
no one’s drowning, baby
no one’s moving no one’s losing their homeland
no one’s gonna become a climate change refugee
[…] because, baby, we are going to fight!
The use of indigenous concepts and the process of their revitalization, to spread
a clear message to fight climate change, places social actors like the Warriors in the
flow of globalization, making them protagonists of protests and social movements.
As passeurs culturels they can cross borders and make sense of the phenomena
that are constantly running over them. They can translate exogenous concepts and
make them understandable to local communities. They can legitimately appropriate
Western narratives that are then indigenized.
Conclusions
After exploring the Pacific Climate Warriors’ rhetoric and narratives, the agency
of indigenous advocates, which is usually hidden by Western discourse, emerges
clearly. Yet, further research could investigate the reception of these kinds of protests
among local communities. The Warriors’ transnational and globalized communication conveys messages that could not be fully and deeply understood and embraced by