On May 16, 2017 we hosted Community Narratives of Climate Change, an interactive panel at the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC Canada. The livestream event featured voices of South Pacific Islanders on the relationships between climate change, community, displacement and indigenous knowledge. The panel was hosted by PPP board member Eli Enns. Panelists included Selwyn Toa (Vanuatu), Eugene Lee (Borneo) and Mikaele Maiava (Samoa).
With Pacific Islanders widely portrayed as the first climate refugees, our panelists unpacked the disconnect between community based and global narratives of climate change, and how the climate refugee narrative interacts with Indigenous identities and histories of Pacific Islanders.
After the livestream we spliced together some of the words which best captured the themes and ideas that were discussed throughout the panel. The video above captured these highlights.
You can watch the livestream in its entirety here.