Indigenous (im)mobilities in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This paper explores Indigenous (im)mobilities in the Anthropocene, and their relationship to Pacific Islands climate activism. In a context where Indigenous peoples and perspectives are poorly represented in global climate politics, it is important to understand how Pacific people represent their own interests and imagine their own futures as pressures to move due to climate change take hold. We examine political action outside of formal governance spaces and processes, in order to understand how Indigenous people are challenging state-centric approaches to climate change adaptation. We do so by studying the works of Pacific activists and artists who engage with climate change. We find that *banuaan expansive concept, inclusive of people and their place, attentive to both mobility and immobility, and distributed across the Pacific Islands regionis essential for the existential security of Pacific people and central to contemporary climate activism. We find that Pacific activists/artists are challenging the status quo by invoking *banua. In doing so, they are politicising (im)mobility. These mobilisations are coalescing into an Oceanic cosmopolitanism that confronts two mutually reinforcing features of contemporary global climate politics: the subordination of Indigenous peoples, perspectives and worldviews; and the marginalisation of (im)mobility concerns within the global climate agenda.

Keeping People in Place: Political Factors of (Im)mobility and Climate Change

“…As this nascent concept evolves, its evidentiary complexity is growing (Ayeb-Karlsson et al 2018). Some recognize the importance of social networks and lack of affective ties outside the community of origin in hindering migration (and even displacement), while others are more inclined to discuss the choice to stay and voluntary immobilities rather than labelling 'trapped populations' (Adams 2016;Farbotko 2018;Suliman et al 2019). In the latter, immobility is not necessarily equated with trapped populations, and place attachment, kinship obligations, and other socio-cultural factors are brought into play.…”

Climate change displacement: towards ontological security

“…To understand if and how voluntary immobility contributes to ontological security, however, it is necessary to understand the context in which ontological security in the smaller islands of the Pacific has been challenged and maintained over time. In this, I draw on previous work on *banua I developed with col-leagues (Suliman et al, 2019), which in turn draws heavily on various Pacific studies and archaeology scholars, here applying an ontological lens. Crucial to ontological security in small islands in the Pacific, arguably, is the concept of connected people and place, variations on the common root word *banua, found throughout many parts of the Pacific Islands where Austronesian languages exist.…”

“…In terms of ontological security, it seems crucial to try and pinpoint moments of ontological change, challenge, and transformation in the worlds defined by *banua, following Suliman et al (2019). The ancestors of many Pacific Islanders, the Austronesians, were, it is believed, the first in the world to navigate out of sight of land.…”

“…It is now widely accepted that this, the first migration to and settlement of the previously uninhabited islands of the Pacific, was willing and deliberate. The ancestors of today's Micronesians and Polynesians were, it seems, the first humansgloballyto experience the ocean out of sight of land, without losing themselves (Suliman et al, 2019). This incredible feat was possible with a thorough knowledge of wind, tides, ocean creatures, astronomy, and their interconnectedness (Diaz, 2011).…”

“…Importantly, *banua is, in part, mobile (Suliman et al, 2019). As *banua took on particularities and uniqueness across the Pacific, becoming vanua in Fiji and Vanuatu, fonua in Tonga, whenua in New Zealand, fenua in Tuvalu, and so on, the distribution of *banua across the Pacific was also interconnected and hybrid.…”