Climate Change: Oceania Is Rising
“Dear Matafele Peinam”
dear matafele peinam,
you are a seven month old sunrise
of gummy smiles
you are bald as an egg
and bald as the buddha
you have thighs of a thunder
and shrieks of a lightning
so excited for bananas,
hugs and our morning walks past the lagoon
dear matafele peinam,
i want to tell you about that lagoon
that lucid, sleepy lagoon
lounging against the sunrise
some men say
that one day
that lagoon will devour you
they say
it will gnaw at the shoreline
chew at the roots
of your breadfruit trees
gulp down rows of your seawalls
and crunch your island’s shattered bones
they say you,
your daughter
and your granddaughter, too
will wander rootless
with only a passport to call home
dear matafele peinam,
don’t cry
mommy promises you
no one will come and devour you
no greedy whale of a company
sharking through political seas
no backwater bullying
of businesses with broken morals
no blindfolded bureaucracies
gonna push
this mother ocean over
the edge
no one’s drowning, baby
no one’s moving
no one’s losing
their homeland
no one’s becoming a climate change refugee
or should i say
no one else
to the carteret islanders
of papua new guinea
and to the taro islanders of fiji
i take this moment to apologize
we are drawing the line here
because we baby
we are going to fight
your mommy
daddy, bubu, jimma
your country
and your president too
we will all fight
and even though
there are those
hidden behind platinum titles
who like to pretend
that we don’t exist
who like to pretend
that the marshall islands,
tuvalu, kiribati, maldives
and typhoon haiyan in the philippines
and floods of pakistan, algeria, and colombia
and all the hurricanes,
earthquakes,
and tidal waves
didn’t exist
still
there are those who see us
hands reaching out
fists raising up
banners unfurling
megaphones booming
and we are
canoes
blocking coal ships
we are
radiance of solar villages
we are
the rich clean soil of the farmer’s past
we are
petitions blooming from teenage fingertips
we are families biking,
recycling,
reusing,
engineers dreaming, designing, building,
artists painting,
dancing,
writing
we are spreading the word
and there are thousands
out on the street marching
with signs
hand in hand
chanting for change
NOW
they’re marching
for you, baby
they’re marching for us
because we deserve
to do more than just survive
we deserve to thrive
dear matafele peinam,
you are eyes
heavy with drowsy weight
so just close those eyes, baby
and sleep in peace
because we won’t let you down
you’ll see
Representing the voice of civil society, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, a spoken word artist, poet, professor, mother and daughter of Oceania’s Marshall Islands, dedicated this poem to her baby girl Matafele Peinam. This was also the very poem that received a standing ovation from hundreds of world leaders and attendees of the United Nations Climate Change Summit in September of last year and a powerful message that I believe all peoples from the north, south, east and west should read, hear and grasp because the effects of Climate Change is not one that we can escape in this lifetime.
Climate Change is our world’s reality. Climate Change will not falter, will not discriminate and will only get worse if we don’t collectively make a radical change in course on how we live and consume mother Earth’s resources.
Among the first to be impacted are our islands in Oceania. Although we have done very little to anger mother Earth and father Sky, we in the Pacific are among the first to be impacted by Climate Change.
A rise in sea level, rise in the ocean’s heat, salt intrusion, acidification, storms and drought, so what? What does this all really mean anyway? What can we really do?
Climate Change is a reminder to all of humanity that we are in fact one world, one island and one peoples. It is a reminder that we are interconnected in the way we desire, love and hate; and in the way we share our news, our perspectives and ideas. We are interconnected and interdependent in the way we trade and depend on each other for food, fuel and entertainment; and in the way decisions and policies are made, which ultimately stretches across cultures, borders and the vast ocean waters, whether in Washington, Israel, or China.
We are interconnected and interdependent in the way that no matter where fossil fuels are burning, where glaciers of ice melt, lands destroyed, or how much the Earth’s orbit changes and how many volcanoes erupt, Climate Change is and will be everyone’s reality.
Climate Change has no religion, no language, no rules, no race, no face; only its victims do, we do. We are at the mercy of mother Earth and father Sky but yet we continue harming them with our human desires, ignorance, greed, and recklessness .
What more do we need to read, study and hear? Do we need proof, do we need more theories or literature or do we need to be Climate Change refugees to believe, to care, to rise?
Climate Change is closer to home than we think. Waving the United States flag in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and only a few feet above sea level are the Marshall Islands. Also known as “the most contaminated place in the world” because of its horrific past as nuclear testing grounds for the U.S. over 60 years ago, and today still a U.S. military site for missile testing and various operations, the Marshall Islands is also known today as a “frontline state” with regard to Climate Change.
The Marshall Islands are drowning and may be the first of our Oceania islands that will disappear from the face of the earth.
Waters crashing into the shores, making its ways into schools and homes; gravesites vanishing; washing away of silk flowers, bones of relatives and landmarks of ancestors into the vast ocean; the people of the Marshall Islands have been living the effects of Climate Change first-hand for many years now.
Many are living the effects, some already leaving their homelands, not ever hearing or even knowing the words “Climate Change,” despite it so often disputed, debated, politicized and berated; riled up with hundreds of thousands of people holding up banners on the streets of New York days leading up to the 2014 Summit.
What does all this really do to address the realities of the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Maldives, Bangladesh and other islands and nations already impacted and those yet to come?
While most world leaders are living comfortably, securing their economic and political strength, tearing down acres of indigenous lands and building hotels, SURVIVAL and vanishing homelands are what “frontline state” leaders and peoples are living with and crying out for help.
Homeless, helpless, landless, terrified of the pristine blue ocean that they sought out for food, for play and a connection to the world, where will our dear brothers and sisters go now? How will they adapt and can they ever come back to their islands?
What are in the minds of our brothers and sisters who are forced to leave their roots and homelands and into foreign grounds and a new way of life? What does all this mean to world countries that will be on the receiving end of Climate Change refugees ? What can they really do, what can we all really do?
The people of the Marshall Islands and all other peoples of frontline states don’t need standing ovations from world leaders or any more banners raised, they need help and need all of humanity to rise, act and change course now for a carbon-free world.
Natural disasters should not be the new normal that’s left unchallenged. Weaning off dependence on fossil fuels, embracing solar energy, planting trees, recycling, biking, designing, building-up carbon-free leaders and demanding this kind of new normal now means our survival. Leaving it to our leaders is not enough. Civil society, mothers, fathers, priests, teachers, children must all rise towards creating a new carbon-free normal in their own homelands.
Presently a professor at the College of the Marshall Islands, U.N. Climate Change Summit poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner posted on her blogsite in November that the College will be pushing to divest from fossil fuels to “join in the movement.”
We have much to learn from the peoples of the Marshall Islands and other frontline states. Professor Jetnil-Kijiner’s poem was not just lip service and not mere words. Matafele Peinam can surely close her eyes and sleep in peace. Her mommy was not speaking in vain and is a true island warrior walking the talk. And yes, we do need “to do more than just survive, we deserve to thrive.”
Share the Climate Change stories of frontline states, reach out to our Oceania families, spread the word, let’s join forces, divest in fossil fuel and rise to stop the destruction of our sacred indigenous lands.
Surely this is not the first you have read or heard about Climate Change and it will certainly not be the last. My call for action is not to regurgitate and recycle old news that you may have already read and forgotten. My call for action is to urge whole of society and leaders of Oceania to help and reach out to our brothers and sisters of the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and other neighboring frontline states; to rise and commit to “blocking coal ships” and divest in fossil fuels now; and to rise and end the destruction of our sacred indigenous lands today.
I am personally “drawing the line here” and marking my commitment to share stories of Oceania’s frontline states and do my part on the ground as an indigenous woman and mother from the islands to rise and join advocacy groups that are paving the way for a clean, green, carbon-free new normal. Our existence, heritage and identities as peoples of the world are on the line. Our babies, children and generations more of humanity are counting on us.
