As we come to the end of another year and ponder on the excitement and prospects of moving into the second quarter of the 21st Century, a journal like ours offers opportunities for scholars of greater Oceania to share the insights of their research, to push themselves to think critically about the issues that we face as a region, to reach across to other disciplines, and to offer creative and strategic propositions about how we might better serve the communities that have made our ocean their home.
As we take stock, we find that climate change continues to occupy the forefront of our preoccupations as the sea continues to rise and COP29 has again failed to answer Pacific Islands Countries and other low-lying nations’ calls for big polluting nations to “pay up.” We also note the proceedings initiated by the Government Vanuatu before the International Court of Justice in a case could potentially become the most consequential in the history of humanity. The case seeks the Court’s opinion in International Law about the obligations of major polluting states to prevent climate change. More specifically, the Government of Vanuatu is asking the ICJ to declare that the conduct of large polluting states is unlawful, that it must cease, and that the consequences of their past and current behaviour must be repaired. The fact that this case was conceived by students and staff of one of our own academic institutions (the University of the South Pacific) demonstrates the capacity of our scholars to produce ideas, action, and strategies that cut across disciplines and count.
This capacity is further illustrated by the recent publication of the Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) report, a three-year collaborative study of the impact of climate change in the Pacific and of strategies adopted by Pacific governments and communities to adapt to the crisis. The report also contains numerous policy recommendations to support governments and other decision-makers in their response to the crisis. The study is the largest of its kind and brought scholars from a multitude of disciplines spread over numerous universities from across the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia.
Several authors of the POCCA report have articles in this issue of Pacific Dynamics. For instance, Emma Sale’s paper relates directly to the question of climate financing and builds on previous work published in the journal by Metherall et al. (2023). Sale reviews the record of the Global Environment Fund (GEF) in the Pacific, with a specific focus on its successes as well as the ongoing challenges that impede its effectiveness.
Besides the climate crisis, several other global events are impacting our region. On the political scene, Donald Trump’s victory in the American elections means that our region is set, perhaps more than ever, to attract the world’s attention as the United States and its allies continue to jostle with China for geo-strategic pre-eminence. The leverage that Pacific Island Countries derive from these rivalries will continue to generate interest among scholars both within and beyond the region. These geo-strategic interests and the room created by Pacific Island States to manoeuvre among them, is the subject of the second article in this issue by Naidu, Lutu, and Asi. This paper breaks new ground by placing the construction of deep-sea ports in Cook Islands, PNG, Tonga, and Vanuatu at the centre of the analysis.
As we contemplate issues that lie beyond global and regional geo-political themes, several other areas of concern continue to demand our urgent attention. Among them is the health of our communities. This issue of the journal contains two related papers with a focus on the prevalence of Diabetes in Pacific communities. The article by Chepulis et al. is a study of more than 10,000 Pacific patients who live in Aotearoa/New Zealand, to identify the characteristics of Type 2 Diabetes among the diaspora, and to draw out the patterns that emerge from their use of medication.
Meanwhile, the article by Vakamacawai, Vunibola, and Ratuva, examines the high incidence of diabetes within Aotearoa/New Zealand’s iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) communities, with a special focus on culture-specific innovative strategies and alternative approaches that can help transform lifestyle and behaviour. Both articles conclude with a warning to avoid the assumption often made that Pacific communities are one homogenous group. The results from both studies indicate that they are clearly not. They further argue that the best approaches to prevent, control, and treat the disease need to reflect the varying and variable cultural and economic contexts within which these communities live.
Two further articles fall in the realm of culture. The article by Bissoonauth-Bedford examines the languages used in the homes of Polynesians living on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia/Maohi Nui. It reveals the prevalence of the French language in the homes of most individuals who took part in the survey, and the impact that this is having on the use of Polynesian languages from the four other archipelagos that make up the colony. While the article is a linguistic study, it raises broad concerns for language resilience and wider cultural decolonisation. Its presence also reminds us of the important corpus of scholarship that lies beyond our anglophone realm in the francophone Pacific. This journal’s editorial position encourages all scholarship and relationships that help dismantle colonial divisions and constructs.
The article by Tulupul et al. is an investigation into the state of collections at the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery with a particular focus on the threats that are posed by agents of deterioration such as pests, high humidity, and mould. The study warns that a lack of investment in systems, staff capacity and skills, instruments, policies, and technology, is placing Papua New Guinea’s rich national heritage at great risk of decay in the very places that are supposed to protect it. Implied in the study are the dangers of neglecting the materials and records that honour our pasts and give meaning to our lives in the present, and that our future generations will need for their own sense of belonging.
Finally, Sakai’s study examines how a “poverty” of land law literacy among iTaukei in the village of Narewa in Nadi (Fiji) contributes to confusion, misinformation, distrust and lack of self-realization among the members of that community. It also affects the capacity of villagers to make informed choices and decisions in matters of land governance and political affiliation. As with the Tulupul et al. article, the suggestion is that moderate investments in social capital – in this case legal education – can generate immense benefits for the well-being of society both at local and national level. By implication, our challenge is to confront and convince our policy-makers that the current neoliberal status quo in Pacific economies is counter-productive and that we must create and forge alternate pathways into the future.
In this endeavour, we can all be inspired by the wisdom of the eminent Tongan philosopher, Epeli Hau’ofa. To this end we welcome a major new biography of his life, Remembering Epeli Hau’ofa. This comprehensive study of his life and legacy was put together and edited by his friends Eric Waddell, Vijay Naidu and Claire Slatter, and published by the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Press at the University of Canterbury and the University of the South Pacific Press in Suva. In this issue, the review of the book concludes that it adds an important contribution to the ever-extending corpus of scholarship about the man and his ground-breaking ideas.