Paper short abstract:

The relationship with the ocean as a source of life and threat among relocated communities in Fiji tells a story of dynamism and transformation worth to be documented

Paper long abstract:

While somewhere in the global North governors can still afford to deny the effects of climate change, in small island developing states the urgency of climate change became a tangible reality more than a decade ago when the coastal community of Vunidogoloa in Fiji was the first one to relocate due to the damages caused by sea level rise. Soon after, many other villages were enlisted as in need of relocation by the Fijian government. Today, more than 82 communities are on the move from the seashore to higher ground threatened by the nowadays periodical intrusion of sea water into the land, a clear manifestation of global climate change. Frequent floods and erosion do not only affect the livelihood of local communities, pushing them further inland in search of cultivable land to sustain their needs and changing the space management of the village area, but also the social and the cultural of indigenous communities that must inevitably come to terms with the challenges brought by the ocean and adapt their knowledge and strategies of survival accordingly.

While the ocean still sustains the livelihoods of coastal villages and articulates the ancestral ties between indigenous people and their environements, it has become the source of new concerns and fears in a multi-faceted and dynamic relationship. Communities come to the sea for fishing and mobility, and the sea comes to land jeopardizing cultivations and the geography of Fijian villages. Climate change induced relocations are challenging the traditional lifestyle of iTaukei people, transforming their sense of belonging, their perceptions of past and future, and their aspirations. This paper will look at how relocating communities engage creatively with the ocean as the place in which the problem lies next to the solution and will reflect on what other people and islands can learn from each other in times of climate change and transformation.