Frontline Truths- Betio, Kiribati

Frontline Truths: Kiribati

In 2014, I visited Betio in Kiribati after it was hit with King Tides that destroyed nearly everything in its path.

While king tides occur naturally, we know that climate change played a hand in making the king tides more extreme. It’s given us a sobering indication of just how damaging any sea-level rise from here on in will be for Kiribati. Small amounts of sea level rise are causing disproportionately large amounts of damage

You can see a video from my time in Kiribati here

These children play outside a kava bar that was destroyed by the recent king tides. Most kava bars in Kiribati provide a steady source of income for its owners and their families. Now that this kava bar is destroyed, kids use it as a playground, while the owners clean up around it and figure out how to provide for their families.

 Most wells in Tarawa were flooded by seawater making them unsafe to drink. These two women now have to fetch rainwater or preserved water from the Bonriki Government Water Supply source for their families. The king tide also completely flooded villages destroying banana trees, breadfruit trees, and crops a well. Their access to fresh drinking water and food is being threatened not just by climate change, but by king tide’s as well.

 This seawall on which this 3-year-old boy plays was too low for the king tides- with it’s insatiable thirst for land and infrastructure. His parents only just recently renovated their kitchen. It, along with this little boy’s front yard, lounge area, and bedroom, was destroyed by the king tide. His family was unfortunately not the only family to experience this.

 “This is the 3rd time I have had to rebuild my seawall because of the high tides. The recent king tides were the highest I have ever seen the tides. I have to keep rebuilding though because I need to protect my family.”

60-year-old Pauro of Temwaiko in Kiribati is the only male in his family. In his entire life, he has never been as scared of the waves as he was, during the recent king tide. His fear his not for himself, but his daughters and his people.

 An old broken down blue lorry becomes a playpen for these children in Betio. This has become a normal sight in Kiribati; children playing in unsafe environments. Old rusty cars become jungle gyms, broken down seawalls become adventure parks, and devastated beaches become a soccer field.

“I remember thinking that I couldn’t believe I was witnessing all these things happening. Everything being destroyed, it was saddening. We heard that another king tide was on its way, so we are waiting for it. My son has already built a new seawall around our house to protect us.”

 

 For these old ladies, this was the most severe high tide they had seen in their lives. The first lady, Kiariari, had her home destroyed by the king tides, and the second lady, Karo Tebenuakai, had her garden destroyed. The people of Kiribati live in simple traditional homes that make them more vulnerable to the rising tide. They also depend on their starchy root crops for carbohydrates. Life is a little more difficult when their shelter and food source is taken away from them.

 Thomas Katioua, the security guard at the Betio Hospital, was on duty the day the king tides destroyed the maternity ward. His main priority during all the chaos was keeping mothers and their newborns safe. This old shell of a ship he is standing in front of was actually a shipwreck out in the lagoon. It was carried by the strong waves towards the seawalls, smashing them up! Fortunately, it just missed the hospital, this entire coastal community was in complete chaos.

“We are currently renovating the whole place because the patients need to be taken care of. Now the clinic is operational again, a new higher seawall has been constructed; the maternity ward has been reopened and everything is done now. I think everything has happened because of climate change.”

“The king tides brought with it so many problems. We were however very fortunate that the waves did not destroy the seawalls, instead, what happened was, the tide was so high that it swept right over the seawalls and straight into the hospital.”

 The roads and the seawall along this coastal village in Temwaiko are no match for the waves that continuously leave a trail of destruction when the tide is in.  Travel to other villages is made harder because the roads have been destroyed, and seawalls meant to protect the villages, crumble at the force of the high tides.

Frontline Truths- Vunisavisavi, Fiji Islands.

As a young Pacific Islander, working in the climate movement, something I have realized is the need for us to shift this single story that paints us as victims of climate change, to one that reflects our multiple truths as Pacific Islanders, living with climate impacts, but thriving nonetheless. 

As a people, we need to retell our stories. We need to shed light on our multiple truths and record this part of our history, so the next generation can learn from our stories. Not just for the sake of Pacific Islanders in the climate discourse, but for Pacific Islanders in general.

The stories told to the world about us, have not been an accurate reflection of our unique Pacific perspectives, and that is why in my role 350.org Pacific Communications Coordinator, I paid close attention to story collecting and storytelling in 2015.
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The stories collected across the region, represent our climate realities. It also represents the shared hope for the Pacific and the world. In 2015, I was part of a collective that took ownership of how our stories were being told to the world.

This collection of stories are our truths as a people at the front lines of climate change. They are the stories of how we are bearing witness to climate impacts as well as holding strong to the resilient spirits of our people.

In 2015, the Pacific Climate Warriors blockaded the largest coal port in the world to send a direct message to the fossil fuel industry. In 2015,I helped organize  teams across the Pacific region to travel throughout the Pacific to document stories of how climate change is destroying the Pacific way of life. Those stories were then woven into traditional mats that traveled to the Vatican to show leaders in Europe what is at risk if religious leaders do not divest from fossil fuels.

The hope was to also share those stories so that world leaders that met in Paris for COP21, would understand that for us in the Pacific, climate change is a question of survival, and they had to listen to the plight of the Pacific from our Pacific Leaders in Paris.

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Frontline Truths: Fiji

Next, we travel to the Fiji islands where George Nacewa and the 350 Fiji team had travelled for roughly 12 hours to get to Vunisavisavi, a small village on the second major island in the Fiji group, Vanua Levu. Vunisavisavi was identified by the iTaukei Affairs Board (the administrative arm of the Government that looks after indigenous people of Fiji), as a community that may need to relocate due to the impacts of climate change. George spoke with a few villagers to understand their realities with climate impacts.

Aisake Lovobalavu

I was born in Vunisavisavi, and I remember as a child playing so many fun games in trees that grew by the beach. See that ‘Baka’ Tree, we used to play in that tree years ago, back then the sea wasn’t as close to the land as it is now. In those days, it was about 10 to 15 meters out.  Nowadays, its so close to the land, and its scary.  Recently, we just built a home by the beach. When we dug the holes for its foundations and posts, seawater came rushing out of the earth. It is taking over our land and causing a number of problems. Our septic tanks are filled with seawater when the tide is in, the streams behind our homes where we used to fetch drinking water from is all inundated by seawater now, and our crops cannot grow anymore. On top of that, our drinking water has been disrupted by the dry spell we are experiencing so we need to limit the use of our remaining water pipes, only using it for drinking, cooking and bathing.

Experts that have visited my village have warned the elders that in ten years, our entire village might be covered by the sea, already the elders in the village are advising us to move further inland and build our homes on hillsides.

I can tell you that even though these things are happening to us right now, we are not just sitting around waiting for these impacts to dictate our lives. We are doing what we can to ensure these impacts are dealt with.



Filipo Bukadrokadroka



I am 47 years old, my entire life I have never seen the sea level as high as it is now. Now it comes right up to this ‘Kavika’ tree, this has never happened before. The stream on my left used to be where our elders fetched water for drinking and cooking, but now we can’t use it anymore because the sea has mixed with it.

This land that we are on is our ancestral ground. We are standing near the birthplace of the first paramount Chief of Cakaudrove, as the paramount chief the ‘Tui Cakau’ had asked my ancestors to remain here and watch over the land for him. We are still fulfilling that request till today and have come to love this place, even though a lot of people have come and advised us to leave because of the sea level rise, we cannot, this is the birthplace of our ancestors and where the foundation of our customs and traditions was built.

All we can do is continue to prepare ourselves to live with the impacts of climate change and hope that we get some assistance to protect our ancestral grounds from climate change.

Meredani Koso



I am a retired school teacher, I taught for just a little under 40 years. My husband and I moved to Vunisavisavi, my husbands’ village, in 2012 to serve the people and look after the ancestral grounds. It is such a privilege to be back in Vunisavisavi after so many years teaching in different parts of Fiji, mainly because we get to educate the children and share the word of God.

When we moved back, my husband and I realized that we needed to build a concrete house to protect others and us from hurricanes, especially because we live so close to the sea. We also decided to build our home this way so children could come and use our tables and chairs, and have good enough lighting to do their homework in the evenings.

When I was working and earning money, we could afford to buy from the shops. Now that we have moved back here, my husband plants and we live off the land. In the village, the land plays an important role in helping provide for our needs. I told my husband that if our ancestors could survive off the land, so too could we. We may not have much, but what we have and get from the land we share, as this is who we are as a people.

When you live in the village, you realize that there is very little you need to buy from shops. From a coconut, for example, we can make cooking oil, body oil, and coconut milk and get fiber to make ropes. Everything we need to survive is right here, and we are blessed to have that. God has provided us with so many things and it’s important that we use that well, but climate change threatens this way of life, our traditional way of life.

Now we live off solar power, which is very convenient as it powers the electrical appliances we need. We only pay $18 a month and it is available around the clock, but not as noisy as the generator. The generator we used before was $20 a month with a time limit of 3 hours a night for usage. We are glad that we are using solar power, energy its most raw form.

If I have one message for you reading this, it would be to never forget who you are and where you belong. Always remember those of us here in villages that have the great responsibility of protecting our indigenous identity, keeping it alive through the protection of your ancestral ground. If you can help us, we welcome your assistance.

Kusitino Vodowaqa



All the young people in Vunisavisavi are now working with the elders to build water catchments for our drinking water and also learn about the old ways. There aren’t a lot of young people in the village nowadays, but those that remain do what we must, to ensure the next generation will know the Vunisavisavi we know. Every day I think about the challenges the next generation will have to face because of the sea eating into our land. The rising seas always affect the homes beside the beach, we can’t plant food around the village anymore, and the change in weather is resulting in so many changes to our normal way of life.

Pio- Turaga Ni Koro



Before this place used to be rich with banana, breadfruit, and coconut trees, but in the past few years, we have seen that the trees have died and can’t bear any more fruit. The sea continuously keeps eating away at our land. These stones are all that remain from the barrier that surrounded the traditional home of the Tui Cakau. The rest have been swept away by the sea.



Iowane Tikoisuva



We have had to move into another home because the house that we used to live in is being torn apart by a combination of the rising sea and the weird weather we have been having. The original home we lived in was built on the ancestral ground of the Tui Cakau, but we have had to move from there because of the rising sea levels. However, the Tui Cakau has stated his intention to rebuild his bure (traditional resting home) on that piece of land again. Despite the threat posed by climate change, he believes in the ‘mana’ of the land and wants to live again on this land of his ancestors.

Pacific Climate Warriors deliver plight to Pope Francis

Original post  (October 8,2015) on 350.org here

Sylvester Loloa handing over the mat from Tonga to the Popes guard

Yesterday a group of climate activists from several small island nations in the Pacific, delivered their pleas to Pope Francis during the Papal Audience.

“We have come from the Pacific Islands to celebrate the leadership of Pope Francis on climate change, and to pray for the islands and the leaders that will decide our fate at COP21 in Paris,” said Koreti Tiumalu,350.org’s Pacific Coordinator.

“We brought mats from the islands made specifically for this journey which we used to pray on over the last three days in St. Peter’s Square. We wanted to offer these mats from the Pacific as a symbol of our gratitude for the Pope’s leadership and his encyclical – Laudato Si,” she added.

The Papal Audience allows pilgrims and visitors the chance to ‘see the Pope’ and receive the Apostolic Blessing from the Head of the Catholic Church. The blessing also extends to loved ones that are suffering. In the case of the twelve Pacific Islanders present at the Papal Audience, the blessing extends to their loved ones at the front lines of climate impacts in the Pacific.

In his encyclical on the environment, Pope Francis has warned of an ‘unprecedented destruction of ecosystems’ and ‘serious consequences for all of us’ if humanity fails to act on climate change. The encyclical served to reinforce the ethical and economic shift we urgently need in order to prevent catastrophic climate change and tackle growing inequality. In doing so it gave further momentum and moral weight to the fast growing fossil fuel divestment movement. With the ear of 1.2 billion Catholics and the respect of Christians and non-Christians alike, Pope Francis is uniquely positioned to add both his voice and the unique moral power of his office to the divestment movement by divesting the Vatican.

“The opportunity to hand over the fine woven mat from Tonga, the traditionally made headpiece from Tokelau and the handwritten message from the Pacific Climate Warriors was a moment I will always treasure,” stated Siliveseteli Loloa from Tonga. “The first three guards refused to accept the gift, but by the fourth guard, the Pope signaled to him that it was OK – I will never forget that moment, it proves that anything can be possible,” he added.

The Popes guard receives it and puts it in the car

The Pacific Climate Warriors, already in Europe to send a message to those investing in the climate crisis and raise the reality of climate impacts on their lives, have been at the Vatican for three days holding a prayer vigil for the Pacific region and leaders heading into the COP21 climate talks later this year in Paris.

“We prayed, fasted, shared stories, shed tears, laughed, sung songs and met so many wonderful people on this journey always keeping our island homes, families and this climate crisis we face at the center. We prayed for leaders around the world who will attend COP21 to go to Paris with the commitments needed to keep our islands above water,” concluded Tiumalu.

350.org is working around the world in the lead up to the Paris climate talks to build momentum towards a fossil free world. Just last month, 350.org and the Divest-Invest coalition announced that institutions representing over $2.6 trillion in capital have now made some form of commitment to divest from fossil fuels. This November and December, 350.org will be working with allies to organise major mobilizations in Paris and across the planet to demand bold action to address the climate crisis.

Pacific Climate Warriors at the Vatican

Pacific Climate Warriors to join the Peoples Pilgrimage.

Original post (October 1, 2015) on 350.org can be found here.

Pacific Climate Warriors and Yeb Saño

12 Pacific Climate Warriors representing 350.org Pacific will be joining Yeb Saño and his team of Pilgrims walking from Foligno into Assisi, Rome this weekend.

Yeb Saño, the former Filipino climate ambassador, and inspiration for Fast for the Climate is leading the People’s Pilgrimage.

Throughout this year, Yeb has been travelling to places at the heart of the climate crisis- across India and Asia and is now embarking on a 1500 KM walk from Rome to Paris.

The Pacific Climate Warriors, hot off their time at the Alternatiba in Paris, are joining Yeb and a group of pilgrims for three days, walking and carrying with them their people from the Pacific, and the hopes and prayers for their island homes.

Yeb Saño before heading off on the walk.

On the 2nd of October, the Peoples Pilgrimage received its blessing from the Pope in the Vatican. In a blogwritten about that moment, Yeb stated that he was in utter disbelief.

“I was going to tell him so many things about thanking him for his courage and leadership on the climate issue and that our group of pilgrims would be carrying the encyclical to Paris. But no words came out of my mouth. Instead, I reciprocated his grip on my hand and tears welled in my eyes.”

On the opportunity to be part of the Pilgrimage, Koreti Tiumalu, Pacific Coordinator for 350.org said that this was the opportune moment to show solidarity before world leaders met for COP in Paris.

“We are marching with the Pilgrims to show the interconnectedness of the climate crisis and the stand in solidarity with people all over the world hoping for a fair, just, legally binding agreement out of COP21 that will ensure the survival of the small island states.”

“We are excited to be part of this moment because we have a deep respect for the Peoples Pilgrimage and, it is a great opportunity for us to call on world leaders to move away from fossil fuels and commit to a just transition towards renewable energy.”

The People’s Pilgrimage will end in December 2015 during the UN COP21 climate talks in Paris.

The Peoples Pilgrimage, led by Yeb Saño, head off on their 15km walk.

“Artivism and Creativity” in Southeast Asia

Original post (September 8, 2015) on 350.org can be found here

Recently, I had the pleasure to be part of the East Asia Leadership Camp, that was held in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. Amongst the many amazing workshop sessions, presentations and breakout sessions, was one on “Artivism and Creativity” facilitated by Hong Hoang, the Southeast Asia Coordinator, and two brilliant artists from Vietnam, Lan Nguyen and Dat Nguyen.

I found time to sit down with Hong and ask her about her break out session.

Fenton: So why this session Hong? Why Artivism and Creativity?

Hong: This was a great opportunity for us to show participants how we can use art to tell stories. I have seen artivism take off with 350.org and other climate organisations, and realised that youth in Southeast Asia were more than capable of using creativity and the arts to tell stories about climate issues.

Fenton: Why was this so important for you? Is direct action harder to do in some places in Southeast Asia?

Hong: Confrontation means different things in different contexts. In places where it might be a little more difficult to use direct action to speak truth to power, we can tap into the creativity of young people and use this creativity to convey messages in a less confrontational way. On top of that, art crosses boundaries and breaks language barriers. With art, we have the opportunity to tell stories without a shared language to get our messages out there.

Fenton: Do you need to be an artist to do this?

Hong: Of course not, anyone can be an artivist, all they need is a little imagination and a message to convey.

Fenton: What was your groups message and what supplies did you use to get those messages across?

Hong: What we had on hand with us, were vegetables and coal. We worked with cabbages, cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergine, peppers, lettuces, and coal. Our message was very clear, coal is bad for your health. Coal mining and coal combustions pollute the air you breathe, the water you drink and contaminates the food you eat.

Fenton: What did you end up making?

Hong: We made a few dishes from around Southeast Asia. Our menu consisted of things like a kool summer salad, co-jelly fish, a co- burger, co- beau fish, a Salad Nga đen (black Russian salad) and a few others.

Fenton: Were you happy with what the participants produced?

Hong: Happy? I’m ecstatic. I am very proud of the participants, and I know that they can leave this camp knowing that there is no set definition of confrontation. And as long as you feel that you are using the arts to tell a story in an effective way, you are an ‘artivist.’

The images dispersed throughout this blog, are images of the art pieces created in the “Artivism and Creativity” at the East Asia Leadership Camp.

A photo taken by Hong