Date and Time: 13 March 2024 @ 10am (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney)
OR 12 March 2024 @ 1pm Pape'ete, Tahiti (HST)
Speaker: Vehia Wheeler, PhD Candidate
Venue: Online only via Zoom
Meeting ID: 819 8993 3495
Passcode: 252530
Mā’ohi communities in Mā’ohi Nui are adaptive to changing times. Historically, this has been shown through the ways that communities have adapted to changing weather patterns, changing land issues, continuous migration, and Western colonization over centuries in the Pacific. This long-term adaptability will be crucial in addressing climate change issues that Mā’ohi Nui face now and into the future. Ways of adapting to these rapidly changing times are necessary and important. My thesis will look at Indigenous methods of historical land management and adaptation in Tahiti and Mo'orea islands, especially in the high valleys. Today, these high valleys can be susceptible to inundations and heavy rains during the flooding seasons. This thesis brings together the indigenous knowledges about land management to act as a guide for future climate adaptability in Tahiti. Indigenous Tahitian knowledge can be a guide for the future in terms of land management and sustaining healthy and vibrant communities in a changing climate.
Event Speakers
CHL PhD Candidate Vehia Wheeler
Vehia's research is on decolonial politics of the Pacific, indigenous methodologies and indigenous knowledge systems, and climate change resiliency (mostly in Mā’ohi Nui or also known as "French Polynesia"/French-occupied Polynesia).