Climate Warriors, oceanic identities, and world enlargement

• Published in: The Contemporary Pacific Vol. 32; no. 2; pp. 341 - 369
• Main Author: Fair, Hannah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Citizen participation; Climatic changes; Environmental protection; International cooperation; Protest movements; Social aspects; Pacific Area
• ISSN: 1043-898X; 1527-9464; 1527-9464

Examines the action of a group of thirty Pacific Islanders blocking Australian movement of coal ships as the 'Pacific Climate Warriors'. Discusses the framing of the Pacific as an area of 'drowning islands' and the counter-narrative of Epeli Hau'ofa of the area as an interconnected and unified 'sea of islands', his ideas of pan-Pacific identity and of the 'world enlargement' of Oceania. Comments on how the Pacific Climate Warriors consciously perform both national and pan-Pacific identities, the enlargement of Oceania beyond its presumed boundaries with protests in Australia to bring climate change home, their attitudes to reeducating Australia, forging links, and resisting doomsdayism discourse, and inequities and relative altitudinal privilege (a discourse based on the height of their home islands and thus perceived vulnerability to climate change) within the Warriors with an overrepresentation of Polynesians and male-dominated gender power imbalances. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.