Pacific poetry giving voice to the loss of our way of life as we know it, our homelands, and our livelihoods to climate change have been heard in the corridors of COP26 through the Mana Moana – Pacific Voices collection.
Consisting of 11 pieces of poetry showcased against digital art to create the Mana Moana – Pacific Voices collection, the poems have been a consistent part of side events that share stories from the Pacific islands.
“Our numbers are small here at this COP in Glasgow, so we have to be heard and seen in as many different ways, and spaces possible, these works are designed to take our experiences across the divide with us to Glasgow,” said Ms Tagaloa Cooper Director of Climate Change Resilience of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
Supported by Aotearoa New Zealand, SPREP have worked with Mana Moana, a collection of artists, to amplify the Pacific voice at COP26 through the Mana Moana – Pacific Voices.
‘We have a great collection of stories and art that profile the Pacific as a unique region, the Pacific people are great orators and storytellers – it’s the first time for us to undertake a project like this, but we have found it to be successful with the works moving all the see them.”
The Mana Moana – Pacific Voices spans Our Ancestors Speak, a powerful work that is a call to arms for peoples across the Pacific and globally. It was filmed in multiple locations featuring real people and voices from Aotearoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Hawaii, Kiribati, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Torres Strait Islands and Tuvalu.
Our Islands Speak, another part of Mana Moana – Pacific Voices, culminates 10 different poems from 10 different Pacific Island poets merging with indigenous artists to create a visual, moving, digitally enhanced offering in the series of poems hand-picked by special curator Dr Karlo Mila.
The poems have been featured on the big screens within the halls of the COP26 in Glasgow, showcasing Pacific prose to those at the conference, strengthening the call for a 1.5-degrees Celsius world.
“As a Pacific poet it has been an honour to see and hear our Pacific prose resonate at COP26, we know that words are powerful at this conference, and are proud to be able to contribute – support our Pacific negotiators in some way,” said Audrey Brown-Pereira, a published Pacific poet who contributed to the Mana Moana – Pacific Voices.
“Poetry can touch people at different levels, we are pleased to share our gifts to help people understand and act upon the climate change challenges our people are experiencing, to help us make a difference and bring a 1.5-world about for our Pacific survival.”
The initiative is supported by Aotearoa New Zealand and coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme with support from many Pacific islands people, organisations and communities.
These videos have been developed to be screened during the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) COP26 and other relevant climate change events.
The Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change is held in Glasgow from 31 October – 12 November, 2021.
For further information please visit: https://www.sprep.org/cop26#mm-pacific-voices and www.manamoana.co.nz/pacificvoices/ or contact Ms Nanette Woonton, Acting Communications and Outreach Adviser, SPREP at [email protected].
To view the Mana Moana – Pacific Voices collection: https://www.youtube.com/user/sprepchannel.
About Mana Moana
Established in 2019 Mana Moana brings together leading interdisciplinary Māori and Pasifika artists to collaborate on multimedia and moving image artworks exploring our relationships with the ocean, climate change and highlighting indigenous knowledge and stories.
The project innovates a fine art delivery presentation across multiple platforms, while adhering to its kaupapa values of art-activism, indigenous values, and creating a medium for upholding a healthy and respectful relationship with the Moana in all its forms (ocean, lakes, rain, rivers).
We seek to draw attention to, critique, and to request action on environmental issues with a future indigenous frame, through the use of technology and art. Our goal is to generate and maintain a healthy space between us, each other and our environment, and to bring people together.
9 NOVEMBER 2021
