Presentation short abstract

This paper will present ethnographic material conducted in informal urban settlements in Blacksands, Vanuatu. I argue for analysis that moves beyond paternalist climate security discourse that see all Pacific women as vulnerable to climate change impacts, or as the ‘virtuous victims’ of disasters.

Presentation long abstract

Despite the advocacy of Pacific women leaders, discussions of climate change and gender regularly position Pacific women, and particularly those from atoll nations, as vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (Jolly 2019). In broader development and climate change narratives Pacific women are often named as the ‘most vulnerable’ victims, or the ‘virtuous victims’, of climate change. These narratives tell stories of how Pacific women are more likely to care about the environment, or for family and children (Alexeyeff 2020: 2; Jolly 2019; Scarr 2015). These discussions remind us that vulnerability, like resilience, is often an empty signifier, a constructed process designed for political effect and purpose (McDonnell 2020; Wetherill 2023).

This paper will present ethnographic material conducted in informal urban settlements in Blacksands on the edge of the capital Port Vila, Vanuatu in the wake of the two category four cyclones hitting in a 48 hour period (Kevin and Judy) in March 2023. Using detailed interviews, I argue that climate change induced disaster can create different outcomes depending on how Pacific people are situated in relation to various aspects of agency and resistance. In this way, analysis moves beyond paternalist climate security discourse that see all Pacific women as vulnerable to climate change impacts, or as the supposedly ‘virtuous victims’ of climate change and disasters. Rather, it attempts to locate gendered agency along a locus of intersecting aspects of identity, thereby attempting to map a more complex approach to emplaced, localized concepts of gender, (im)mobility, climate change and land.