100,000 people still live on the 32 atolls that make up the south Pacific island nation of Kiribati,but global warming is causing sea levels to rise. The archipelago,which lies halfway between Australia and Hawaii,lies just two meters above sea level and is considered especially endangered.The first two atolls have already been submerged. Kiribati’s president is faced with a dilemma: does he have to evacuate all the country’s residents?
The Pacific’s oldest cemetary
Check out the story and video on Pacific Pulse about an archaeological dig near the capital of Vanuatu which reveals clues about the nation’s first settlers.
Australian archaeologists are working with Vanuatu's National Museum to reveal new insights into the lives of the first people to make Vanuatu their home
An Island Calling December 1, 2009
An Island Calling is a truly “post-colonial” tale that revolves around a brutal double murder of a gay male couple, one of who was a human rights worker, in Fiji in mid-2001. Through exploring the incident’s context, this film reveals deep historical, social and political currents that circulate throughout the Pacific. However, the documentary is, as much, an intimate story of two very different families.
Directed by Annie Goldson, an Occasional Production.
If you are living in NZ you can watch this film at the Cinema showcase (March 2008 – May 2008), click here for more information.
http://www.worldcinemashowcase.co.nz
To get a copy of the film, or to find out when it will be screening in your country get in touch with Occasional Productions:
Hopenhagen Ambassador Contest November 18, 2009
Hopenhagen Ambassador Contest
Hopenhagen.org is working to connect every person, city and nation with what is happening at the conference in Copenhagen, believing that citizens can help push the fate of the planet down a positive path by showing political leaders that the citizens of world passionately want them to reach an agreement that would limit how much carbon emissions each country would produce. Leaders are shying away from making these commitments, and Hopenhagen.org wants to show there is a strong political will to set emissions targets — which would mean more green jobs, and a more sustainable future for people everywhere.
The Pacific island countries are subject to the impacts of global warming caused by excessive fossil fuel burning, atmospheric pollution, and deforestation of the land hemisphere. The small islands of the world have good cause to be worried, with sea levels rising to the point where whole island nations could become submerged. Where would that leave the people who inhabit those islands?
If you are passionate about the issue of global warming and climate change, and the impact it has on the Pacific islands, why not have you say by taking part in the Hopenhagen Ambassador Contest where a citizen journalist will be sent to Copenhagen for the climate conference, to represent the tiny island of the Pacific.
Princess Ashika Sinking – Tonga November 12, 2009
Transcripts Available: Tonga Royal Commission Inquiry into Sinking of Princess Ashika
The 37-year-old ferry, Princess Ashika, sank on August 5 on a voyage from Nuku’alofa with the loss of 75 lives. The majority of those lives belonged to women and children who slept below deck at the time of the tradgedy.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry has been told passengers were asked to bail out water from the deck of the Princess Ashika moments before it sank.
Full transcripts are available on each day’s hearing of the Tonga’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Sinking of the Princess Ashika. For a more detailed account and links to transcripts, visit PacificEyewitness.
Visual arts student Penitoa Finau’s final year presentation – giant 12-metre by three-metre photographic image featuring a striking image of people mourning those who died in the Princess Ashika ferry tragedy in Tonga.
Photo: SHANE WENZLICK
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There once was an Island – Te Henua e Noho November 10, 2009
Te Henua e Noho Film Trailer from On The Level Productions on Vimeo.
Excerpt from On The Level Productions:
What if your community had to decide whether to leave their homeland forever? This is the reality for the culturally unique Polynesian community of Takuu, a tiny low-lying atoll in the South Western Pacific. As a terrifying tidal flood rips through their already eroded home, the Takuu community experiences the devastating effects of climate change first hand. In this verite-style film, three intrepid characters Telo, Endar and Satty, allow us into their lives and their culture and show us first hand the human impact of an environmental crisis. Two scientists, oceanographer John Hunter and geomorphologist Scott Smithers, investigate the situation with our characters, outlining what they think is going to happen as the atoll continues to disintegrate and what can be done about it. Intimate observational scenes allow Telo, Endar and Satty to take us on their personal journeys as they consider whether to move to an uncertain future in Bougainville or to stay on Takuu and fight for a different, but equally uncertain, outcome. Government officials in impoverished Bougainville discuss the limited options the islanders have.
Check it out below:
Te Henua e Noho Film Trailer from On The Level Productions on Vimeo.
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Children of the Tsunami November 6, 2009
Pacific Eyewitness Brings you the latest news concerning the Pacific’s youngest Tsunami victims. To read full article, visit the Pacific Eyewitness site by clicking here.
To leave a comment about the Children of the Tsunami pots, click here.
Pacific Tsunami News November 5, 2009
Pacific tsunami relief efforts grossly inadequate
The Litia Sini Beach Resort lies in ruins in the tsunami devastated village of Lalomanu in Samoa on October 5, 2009 AFP PHOTO
cargo relief supplies arrive in the Tongan island of Niuatoputapu by New Zealand Air Force's Sea Sprite Helicopter on board Photo: NZ Defence Forces.
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