Many Drops Make Up the Ocean: Climate Coloniality in the Marshall Islands (CHL Mid Term Review)

Time: 10am to 11am AEDT
Date: Thursday, 7 March 2024
Speaker: Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, PhD Candidate, CHL-ECDI
Venue: Online only via Zoom
Meeting ID: 894 8092 9742
Passcode: 097791

“An piliñliñ koba komman lometo” is a Marshallese proverb that means, “many drops make up the ocean.” This is the guiding principle behind this research which takes into consideration the many drops, or many facets, that make up the ocean of climate coloniality in the Marshall Islands. The candidate will be presenting poetry that demonstrates the ways in which the current climate disaster facing the Marshall Islands, an atoll nation at only 2 meters above sea level, is a continuation of colonial impacts on her homeland, and the ways in which climate change has colonized imagination, relationships, and futurities. Guided by Farhana Sultana’s article, “The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality,” the research focuses on Marshallese land -  it analyses indigenous relationships to land through a study of Marshallese proverbs, the colonial legacies and their various impacts on Marshallese land tenure as well as the physical changes that were forced on the land, and current climate policies developed and drafted with Marshallese perspectives which set out an envisioned future to protect Marshallese land against sea level rise. The creative portfolio includes reflections and poetry inspired by this research and the experiences of the author as a climate activist, a grassroots community organiser, and now climate envoy to the Marshall Islands.