This year there is a clear and urgent message sent from the soft blue waters and adze sharp minds of Pasifika artists to the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (referred to as COP28) is the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference, being held from 30 November until 12 December 2023 at Expo City, Dubai.
Human-caused climate change is severely affecting the Pacific. Intense tropical cyclones, floods and droughts have ravaged many islands. Sea level rising, ocean acidification, and the water's surface temperature increasing is causing coral reef destruction that is severely impacting ecosystems. Pasifika people are losing homes, historical sites and food security.
In 2015, in response to the growing urgency of climate impacts, nearly every country in the world signed onto the Paris Agreement, a landmark international treaty under which 195 nations pledged to hold the Earth’s temperature to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” and going further, aim to “limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
To prevent worsening and potentially irreversible effects of climate change, the world’s average temperature should not exceed that of preindustrial times by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Mana Moana - Pasifika Voices is supported by Aotearoa New Zealand and coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Mana Moana and Storybox, with the support of Pasifika poets and artists, to amplify the Pacific voice at COP28. Co-directors Rachael Rakena (Kāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi) and Mike Bridgman (Tonga) collaborated with Audrey Brown-Pereira (Cook Island/Samoan) and Pasifika multimedia artists to develop moving image creative intervention.
Pasifika Voices is a collection of artistic video works responding to this call of 1.5 to stay alive. The filmic works embody indigenous storytelling that demand our attention and request action by enabling critical discussion of positive relationships with our environment.
“To raise awareness on the impacts of the climate crises on Pacific island people, we needed to move outside of our comfort zone, listen and act. Be inclusive and responsive. Mana Moana Pasifika Voices III is intergenerational and brings a bilingual French and English poem to life from the late Déwé Gorode, a Kanak poet, politician, feminist and human rights Activist,” said Ms Audrey Brown-Pereira, Curator of Mana Moana Pasifika Voices Volume 3.
“We have the rising star of Ruby Macomber whose beautiful words of Cry Sis imbue resilience and resistance. And lastly, they taking pictures of us in the water a Hip Hop remix of my poem, led by the brilliant Anonymouz who brings to the negotiation table a village of Pasifika Aotearoa Hip Hop Artists to the forefront on climate justice.”
This collection is the third in a series that began in 2021. There are three new works coming to COP28 and are based on poetry curated by Brown-Pereira. Poems have been gathered from Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa to reflect the diverse voices and experiences of our past and present poets, including a giant of Pasifika poetry; New Caledonian poet Déwé Gorodé alongside some strong fresh voices of a new generation.
Gorodé’s poem ‘Writing’ is a gift on the importance of the interconnectedness of our environment with our humanity. Conceived and directed by Nicolas Molé, the imagery moves between islands, mangroves, the earth and a child in utero, reminding us through the hypnotic mix of païci, french and english performed by Paul Wamo Taneisi and Lucile Bambridge that our past is a blueprint for our present and future generations.
Audrey Brown-Pereira’s poem ‘They taking picture of us in the water’ is an example of the Pasifika community of creatives from hip hop artists, poets and dancers coming together for a common cause to raise the global consciousness on the impacts of climate change on our Pacific people. The collaboration led by Anonymouz is a call and response to Audrey’s poem. It moves from the islands to inner city waterways to the galaxies aiming to connect people on a global level to the urgency of climate change.
Cry Sis is the weaving of intellect and wisdom through the beautiful words of Rotuman poet Ruby Macomber. This film spans across untouched beaches to climate protests, turtles swimming through the moana to Macomber massaging her Aunty’s shoulders at the shore. The play on words speaks to the tears of sadness that meet the ocean in this climate crisis.
Poetry is a way of writing through languages, of plaiting together the metaphors of indigenous connection to land. Poetry is expansive in its ability to give voice to the vā, the connecting space between us. It is the language of alofa, ‘ofa, aro’a, aroha. These films are playing on screens around the conference as a clear and emotive reminder to everyone of the reason they are there.
The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP28) in Dubai, UAE is taking place from Thursday 30 November 2023 – Tuesday 12 December 2023.
It is being attended by Pacific leaders and their delegations, who are advocating for the survival of Pacific communities who continue to be at the forefront of climate change impacts.
