Authors
Joeli Veitayaki, Elise Huffer, Matthew Kensen, Salanieta Kitolelei, Ron Vave, Suliasi Vunibola and Luisa Young
Abstract
Pacific Islanders are people of the sea: it is their pathway to each other, to the rest of the world, their endless saga and their most powerful metaphor, because ‘the sea is in them.’ Pacific peoples, whose lands are in the world’s largest ocean, have developed unique cultures and knowledge, which include an in depth understanding of their oceanic environment. The people’s customs and cosmologies, livelihood, food security, identity and connections are derived from their small islands and the extensive sea that surrounds them. Over centuries, Pacific people’s ability to adapt has equipped them with the knowledge and skills needed to protect their environment, secure their livelihoods, devise resource use practices and technologies to harness resources of the sea, air and land, trade with their neighbours, and adapt to the environmental hazards of tropical island environments. This is why we should learn from and engage Pacific Island communities and empower them to adapt and build resilience to live in their island communities and assist them in making appropriate choices in response to climate change and its worsening and wide-ranging impacts. This chapter highlights the diverse and rich narratives through the lenses of researchers. It tells of the sophisticated and organised societies that existed in the Pacific Islands in the past and how the people lived in their island homes today. These rich community experiences and challenges across the Pacific Ocean, arguably the largest carbon sink in the world, and how people have adapted to the climate crisis using culture based responses passed down over generations present useful lessons for Pacific Island communities today and in the years to come.
Rights
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