Pacific Climate Justice TREK

Author: Sofia Wolken

Today we left Funafuti to travel back to Fiji! We experienced the country with the youth leaders of the church groups that we were divided into, which made it so hard to leave. We formed such meaningful relationships with the members of the church youth groups, and other locals as well. They welcomed us 6 days ago so warmly when we arrived, and today they all came to the airport for our fair-well. Welcomes and goodbyes in Tuvaluan culture are very important which they showed us with the beautiful ceremonies that they had, and the gifts they gave us. The hospitality and kindness that they showed us was something that I have not experienced anywhere else until coming to Tuvalu. As we left, the youth leaders and members met us at the airport and shared hugs and gifts with us. We were gifted beautiful seashell necklaces and earrings, breadfruit chips and finesse traditional fans. They were such thoughtful gifts that showed us how much they enjoyed our visit and sharing their culture. We truly immersed ourselves in their culture and could not be more grateful for this experience and the relationships that we have formed. I will personally miss the deep conversations about climate change, participating in their culture and laughing with all of the people we met. We all felt so included and challenged as we experienced the way of life in the South Pacific.

Some of my favorite memories from our few days in Tuvalu came from interacting with the communities and sharing stories. A Talanoa is the act of group story telling and sharing. These Talanoa sessions were almost everyday and taught me how important storytelling and sharing is. When everyone is so engaged and actively listening to each other, everyone feels heard. Outside of the more formal Talanoa sessions, I have been having deep conversations with my youth leader while exploring the island during our night programs. She has shared more serious stories and concerns about climate change, but has also shared many of the beautiful parts of her life in Tuvalu and how much she loves Funafuti. Her love for the island and the community makes me appreciate the country, but also makes me feel disappointed in the current state of climate change and how much large countries are impacting small islands in the South Pacific. 

As we are soon leaving to come back to the United States, it is important for us to take the next few days to reflect on our experience and the impact we have on other parts of the world. Larger countries are having much more of a climate impact on the environment compared to small islands like Tuvalu. In Tuvalu they say, “Save Tuvalu, save the world”. After many lectures and discussions, we learned that they say this because the beginning of the problem is the beginning of the solution. Starting with saving Tuvalu can be the first step in saving the rest of the world, because there will come a time when the problem is too big for us to handle. We were told that if you ignore the beginning of the problem (Tuvalu sinking), you will be impacted later and by the time that we realize that we have to do something, it is too late. As we share our experiences and the stories of the people in Tuvalu that we are talking to, we are trying to represent the voices of Tuvalu where their voices aren’t heard. I hope that this blog post can bring awareness to the country of Tuvalu and what they are experiencing everyday, and bring a new appreciation of the culture. Tuvalu had such an impact on us, and we will continue to share the stories about the people we met, and cherish the memories we made.