Hawaiian hula dancers join 24 other island delegations at the opening ceremony of the Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture. The eight-hour marathon of music and dance took place at the Stan Sheriff Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on June 6, 2024.Hawaiian hula dancers join 24 other island delegations at the opening ceremony of the Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture.
Along with their militaristic domination of many island nations, Washington and Paris have used the Marshall Islands and French Polynesia as nuclear testing sites, which rendered some isles uninhabitable and left local communities with devastating health impacts. Pacific Islanders are often displaced minorities in their own ancestral homelands.
When I was 16, we knew the wind and rain would come November, December, January. Now there are strong winds all year. The sun is very hot now, very severe. The sea comes inside peoples’ homes. The beaches are damaged. There is soil erosion. Before there were big sandy beaches; now they’re rocky. When I was young, I collected seashells at the beach; now my grandchildren can’t do that. We did nothing to cause global warming, but suffer from it. I’m really sad and disappointed.
Denouncing sea level rise, panelist Jobod Silk from the Marshalls, a low-lying coral atoll nation, stated: “The people who contribute the least amount to climate change bear the brunt. We choose to stay – even if we swim in our homes.
At the “Tradition-Tourism-Technology” panel, Jarvis Teauroa, deputy director of French Polynesia’s Department of Culture and Heritage, described what happened when Taputapuātea, a pre-Christian temple in Raiatea, one of Tahiti’s outer isles, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. “This brought much benefits, including greater cultural recognition in Polynesia,” Teauroa said.