Personal Origin Story & Family Heritage

• Speaker: Fentinat Bua from Fiji Islands
• Childhood memory: age 10-11, grandfather took him fishing on ocean rocks
• Grandfather (paw) had spear, waiting for fish, told stories about "old people"
• Family lineage: long line of boat builders and fisher folk
• Grandfather's belief: ocean would always be kind to them
• Stories provided food for mother and siblings for generations
• Realization: same ocean that nourished family could now destroy them due to climate change
  • Warming ocean, sea level rise, runaway climate impacts

Pacific Climate Warriors Formation & Identity

• Network of young Pacific people across Pacific region and diaspora
• Communities in Australia, Aotearoa, New Zealand, United States
• Contribution: less than 1% to global greenhouse gas emissions
• Status: among most vulnerable to climate crisis threats
• Origin: began over decade ago at youth climate conference "Global Power Shift" in eastern Bulki
• Problem identified: outside world only knew Pacific people as climate victims waiting to be saved from "drowning islands"
• Decision: break trend in climate storytelling, show what Pacific people were doing to fight
• Slogan/mantra: "We are not drowning, we are fighting"

Newcastle Coal Port Blockade Action

• Location: largest coal production port in world, Newcastle, Australia
• Action: paddled out in traditionally built handmade canoes, blockaded port for one day
• Significance: first-of-its-kind demonstration of that magnitude
• Achievement: broke victim narrative, built narrative reflecting full dignity of Pacific people
• Refused to be "canary in coal mines" ready to be sacrificed
• Commitment: be heroes their communities deserved, retell world their stories

Narrative Power & Identity

• Problem: many defined by narratives that don't serve them
• Impact: stories take away power, rob agency, strip authentic selves
• Core belief: "We are who we are because of stories we tell ourselves and each other"
• Need: get better at telling stories and driving strategies bold enough to build new vision of co-created futures

Two Essential Elements for Change

Climate Leadership

• Pacific communities saying no to fossil fuels, yes to climate solutions
• Venues: village town halls to United Nations climate talks
• Partners/allies across majority world creating conditions for "voyage towards Pacific beyond fossil fuels"
• Examples:
  • Philippines friends teaching via Zoom: build backpack-size portable solar modules
    • Charge mobile devices, medical supplies, provide light after category 5 cyclone landfall
  • Communities learning keyhole gardens built above ground
    • Mitigate saltwater intrusion
    • Enable growing, consuming, redistributing local/traditional foods

Narrative Leadership

• Community organizer from Pacific telling stories about front-line climate crisis people
• Willingness to articulate alternative way forward putting people/communities first
• Telling fuller, more nuanced stories
• Goal: become future ancestors children can be proud of

Vision for Future

• Climate and narrative leadership built by most vulnerable communities will unlock deserved futures
• Future characteristics:
  • Climate solutions support/empower indigenous communities to be most dignified selves
  • Communities own and have access to renewable energy sources
  • Ultimately fossil-free future
• Requirements: all people doing what they can to co-create these futures
• Process: break stories/strategies that don't serve, build ones that do
• Role expansion: beyond story stewards, become solution stewards