Page 38 - Islands Business May 2023

Opinion Opinion

PACIFIC REGIONALISM: TO HELL

WITH DROWNING

By Kaliopate Tavola

Julian Aguon is from Guam and is a human rights lawyer,
and founder of Blue Ocean Law, a progressive firm that works
at the intersection of indigenous rights and environmental
justice. He is also a writer. He wrote his celebrated essay, ‘To
Hell With Drowning’ in ‘The Atlantic’ in 2021.
“For people living in Oceania, climate change is the fight
of our lives, and we need more than science to win. We need
stories. And not just stories about the stakes, which we know
are high, but stories about the places we call home. Stories
about our own small corners of the Earth, as we know them.
As we love them.” Pacific peoples and Stories of environment and disability in
His reference to ‘climate change is the fight of our lives’ Oceania. The last day of the Conference continued its high-
echoes the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ (PIFL) 2018 Boe level themes in Decolonial feminisms in Oceania: Localised
Declaration, wherein Leaders identified climate change as and regional perspectives and Rethinking Australian coloniality
the region’s existential security threat. Aguon’s line, ‘And we through Pacific Biography.
need more than science to win’, is for me, an unequivocal In this article, I am linking Pacific regionalism (through the
affirmation that whilst science relating to and substantiating Pacific Islands Forum or PIF) to the conference theme: ‘To
climate change is resolute, there is more that the region can Hell with Drowning’. The linking is more than just thematic.
do. Aguon’s strident call for stories, to supplement science The AAPS Conference itself should be seen as part and parcel
and to authoritatively validate lowering the stakes faced by of Pacific regionalism.
the region, is a rallying call that cannot be denied - that for The 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent approved
our deep attachments and love for our big ocean states, our by PIF’s Leaders at their 51st meeting in Suva last July is yet
homes within the Blue Pacific Continent. to be finalised. It still needs an implementation and monitor-
On 11-14 April 2023, the Australian Association for Pacific ing plan and a regional architecture. Notwithstanding that,
Studies (AAPS), hosted its Biennial Conference, themed: the Strategy’s typology is already determined in that it is
‘To Hell With Drowning’ at the School of Culture, History essentially political (see Islands Business March 2023). It is not
and Language, Australian National University (ANU). AAPS’ economic regionalism or a trade bloc, nor security regional-
Vice President, Professor Katerina Teaiwa, corroborated the ism in the traditional sense. Admittedly, all three aspects of
conference theme and its intended manifestations to reflect regionalism are reflected in one way or another. However, the
Aguon’s rallying call for stories. 2050 Strategy is essentially political regionalism in its princi-
She went further in collaboration with Julian Aguon, saying pal orientation.
“Characterising the whole Pacific as vulnerable and in deficit As such, PIF’s principal tools for its work under the 2050
is not that inspiring. It’s not empowering. It’s not accurate… Strategy comprise all the political forces that it can muster
We are safeguarding what’s important…What we are doing in from across the board – the regional political leaders and the
the region is important in its own right. We are challenging public at large, including members of the Civil Society Organ-
the discourse. We are challenging the policies. We are chal- isations, women, youth, the private sector and the churches.
lenging the framework.” It is now the task of the PIF and the Pacific Islands Forum
A quick glance at the Conference programme verifies what Secretariat (PIFS) to reach out to these regional political forc-
the good Professor was saying. Intergenerational Wisdom of es to mobilise them appropriately. They have to take the first
the Blue Pacific was the first day’s theme. The second day initiative to reach out. Gone are the days when they would sit
covered a range of emboldening issues like The Decolonial back waiting to be approached. Peoples’ powers have to be
Possibilities of Pacific Studies Futures, Reframing and trans- natured and valued by those in position of regional authority
forming oceans governance in Oceania, Justice for Creation: for the good of all. The seat of power is firmly in the public
Indigenous perspectives and the role of the Church, Ocean domain. The 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent is
Diplomacy and Refusing Fatalism: Voices for climate justice configured that way.
and decolonial futures. This is apt for Pacific regionalism, given its voluntary
The themes for the third day were equally inspiring. It nature. Its power base resides in the states, the constitu-
kicked off with Trans-Indigenous reflections on sovereignty ent members of PIF, and the various states and the peoples
and self-determination. The afternoon sessions included: therein will play dominant and critical role in the furtherance
Navigating uncharted waters; Critical approaches to law and of the theme ‘To Hell With Drowning’.

38 Islands Business, May 2023