“No one has denied that the bombing of Hiroshima occurred, and that a nuclear weapon was used on people and the environment. In Mā‘ohi Nui, we simply don’t have that level of accountability and honesty from the French state.” — Vehia Wheeler.
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“The entire arrangement, where the US uses Hawai‘i as a strategic war base, is fundamentally violent and harmful. It relies on the perpetual suppression of our rights and potential as Kānaka Maoli.” — Joy Enomoto.
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“We’re going to be left with people who go: ‘You know what, my uncle or my brother or my cousin died from bowel cancer. And it should have been picked up in a screening programme.’ Make no mistake, these deaths are unnecessary.” — Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen.
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“Just like that, we were told there’d be no more books and language support for our children and families. It’s been devastating. I want whoever’s in charge of these literacy funding decisions to walk in my shoes for a day.” — Alana Nootai.
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“If the Indonesian government has its way, the area we’ve always called home, where we’ve lived and hunted for thousands of years, will cease to exist.”— Rosa Moiwend.
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“I couldn’t, in all honesty, remain in my roles. The government didn’t seem interested in listening to genuine public health advice.” — Sir Collin Tukuitonga.
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“The only ‘development’ that happened in our islands was sickness. The health consequences and cost of France’s nuclear bombs continue to be borne by our people, yet France still refuses to take responsibility for them.” — Tahitian anti-nuclear activist and politician Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross.
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“I’ve heard stories of mining executives moving to the islands, where they’re insinuating themselves into the community, buying up art from local artists, funding cultural events, and pouring money into schools, sports and education.” — Teuila Fuatai.
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“They’ve charmed and courted their way through our islands and people. Industry representatives have embedded themselves and the vast resources of their companies into our communities.” — Louisa Castledine on the mining industry’s activities in the Cook Islands.
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The New Zealand citizenship rights of Sāmoans “have been continually ignored and disregarded because the New Zealand government misunderstood, misapplied and failed to uphold its own legislation.” — Former diplomat Nigel Allardyce.
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“The fact that the International Criminal Court is now considering adding ecocide to its jurisdiction is a huge step forward in the climate crisis.” — Professor Leilani Tuala-Warren.
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“The spirit of our youth and people is one of determination. There is no going back. The fight for our dignity and freedom is a fight for all of humanity.” — Billy Wetewea in Kanaky.
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“Kanaky is a microcosm of the broader security contest in the Pacific, where external forces are undermining Pacific self-determination and our priorities, causing political and social instability.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“If we provide the means for our most vulnerable to live with decency and dignity, there’s a much greater chance they will find long-term solutions to their own challenges.” — Brooke Pao Stanley.
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“What we’ve always said is this: We are not French. We are Kanak. Let us make our own decisions on our own land.” — Joseph Xulué.
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“Places like bootcamps, corrective training facilities and prisons are effectively the military arm of the state. And it’s impossible for them to be anything other than that.” — Michael Blakely, who worked at a military-style bootcamp in the 80s.
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“In the Pacific, food strengthens and creates communities. The story of food is also the story of people. There’s wisdom, there’s survival, there’s knowledge in the growing of crops and methods of food gathering. It goes way beyond the recipe.” — Chef Robert Oliver.
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“Many people are worried and scared, simply because they’re Māori working in the public sector. There is a real feeling of helplessness.” — Kura Moehau.
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“In Tokelau, in the 1860s, those responsible were Peruvian. Their slave ships came to our atolls and took most of our able-bodied men, as well as some women and children. Virtually half of our people were taken.” — Artist Moses Viliamu on blackbirding.
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If the Fast-track Approvals Bill goes through, “our coast will once again be the target of mining consent applications — this time, with no clear avenue for our voices and rights as mana whenua to be upheld.” — Olivia Haddon, on winning an 80-year battle to stop sand mining at Pākiri.
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“Despite the rhetoric around our so-called traditional partners and his desire to align more closely with the US, I believe Winston Peters also sees the need for New Zealand to engage meaningfully with Pacific nations.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“There was this fear that if the Privy Council decision was upheld, 100,000 Sāmoans living in Sāmoa would arrive in New Zealand, virtually overnight, because they, by right, were also New Zealand citizens.” — Arthur Anae, on the 1982 law that denied New Zealand citizenship to a group of Sāmoans.
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“We can’t claim to be a trusted partner when we spy on our Pacific family on behalf of others. We also can’t claim to have an independent foreign policy when outside interests operate within our spy agency.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“In three-and-a-half minutes, I showed everyone in the church, including my family, who I really was: a queer Sāmoan Christian.” — Iatua Felagai Taito.
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“The very activities that exploited our people and land contributed to the fossil fuel-dependent economies of France, England, Australia, and other developed nations. These are the economies . . . that are feeding the climate crisis. Now, our islands and communities are the victims of that crisis.” — Vanuatu MP Ralph Regenvanu.
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“We’re in a place where it’s hard for many of us to see a life without the US hovering overhead. Our sense of dependency has become so ingrained that we’re weighing promises of economic benefits . . . against significant damage to our islands.” — Sheila Babauta from the Mariana Islands.
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“Pacific nations can see the step-change in the way New Zealand is conducting its foreign policy. The shift away from an independent, nuclear-free and Pacific-led foreign policy towards the adoption of a US-led, Indo-Pacific strategy is clear. Our actions in Yemen confirm it.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“Within the wider Rainbow community, our Pacific voices were very much a minority. Over and over again, our needs were overlooked, sidelined and excluded. We were a minority within a minority.” — Phylesha Brown-Acton.
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“No amount of investment in military platforms, and alignment with the AUKUS nations and their beliefs, will deny our demography and geography: we are part of the Pacific.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“I’ve been mistaken for an orderly, a cleaner, and the girl who collects the food menus. I’ve even walked into rooms where patients tell me they’re waiting for the doctor because they assume that can’t be me.” — Dr Vanisi Prescott.
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