“Sensible, precautionary investments will do much to help us manage climate change’s worst impacts on our health, saving the country’s health budget and our wellbeing well into the future.” — Lucy Cassels.
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“It is the spiritual relationship that is so often missing in scientific reports, and that I hope will be highlighted in the next IPCC report.” — Professor Sandy Morrison.
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“It is remarkable that our country has commenced recognising Indigenous ancestors in some significant lands and waters. It’s time to be next-level courageous with general conservation and environmental law.” — Jacinta Ruru.
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“Not caring anymore doesn’t mean the problem is no longer there. Especially in the Pacific, where climate change isn’t a distant threat but a present-day catastrophe already uprooting communities, unravelling the fine tapestry of culture, and upending entire ways of life.” — Jamie Tahana.
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“My book deals with grief and loss, because wherever there is colonialism, there is grief and loss. But there’s also strength, endurance, intelligence, wit, and just really hardworking, hard-case people doing their best in terrible and unjust circumstances.” — Nadine Hura, author of ‘Slowing the Sun’.
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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 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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“It’s a new form of civil wrong we’re proposing, which would recognise there is a legal duty to stop contributing to the climate crisis, and the Supreme Court has agreed that we have the right to argue for that.” — Michael Smith.
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“Why must Tuvalu exchange some of its sovereign powers over its own security for a migration pathway? This is not climate justice.” — Taukiei Kitara.
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“Taking advantage of the smallness and climate vulnerability of island states to serve strategic agendas and take away their sovereign rights is downright unethical.” — Professor Steven Ratuva on the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union.
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“I never ever heard that word ‘kaitiakitanga’ as a kid even though our parents practised it. It was like a daily routine.” — Environmentalist Kevin Prime.
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“When I see environmental destruction, ecological destruction, I’m compelled to do something. When I see human rights violations, I just feel aroha for people because, what’s that saying? ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’” — Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn.
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“In his writing and teaching, Epeli Hau’ofa rejected the portrayal of the Pacific as weak, disconnected and dependent on outside help for survival — a soul-sapping belittlement that the Pacific has endured for centuries.” — Kennedy Warne.
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“At last the call for climate justice by the people of the Pacific has been heeded by the countries of the world, thanks to the power of young minds to think creatively and strategically about the future of the planet and humanity.” — Professor Steven Ratuva.
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“When I think about whether we can sustain a future here, I know we just have to, because a lot of our whānau have got nowhere else to go.” — Lillian Te Hau-Ward, who leads the local response and Civil Defence team in Tokomaru Bay.
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“What happens in the Amazon isn’t a problem for Brazilians only. It’s a problem for the whole world.” — Gabriel Uchida talking to Moana Maniapoto.
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“Sea level rise is a slow-moving disaster for our Māori communities. They’re disproportionately at risk because our wāhi tapu, our urupā, our marae, are generally in low-lying coastal areas, or in river valleys.” — Dr Shaun Awatere.
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“I’ve always felt it’s important for us to clearly articulate what the trajectory of justice should look like for our people, and to articulate for ourselves our vision of justice.” — Tina Ngata.
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“If the government gets the incentives right, the opportunity is there for planting huge areas in native species, controlling pests such as possums, deer, goats, wallabies and pigs, and returning some of what has been lost.” — Darren van Hoof, Forest and Bird conservation manager.
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“Few people know that there is, in fact, a sixteenth island of the Cook Islands which can be found in the South Waikato: Te Kaokaoroa-o-Pātetere, or Tokoroa.” — Tamatha Paul.
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“In the age of climate change, it cannot be clearer that when Indigenous people don’t have control in the relationship they have with their land and bodies of water, ultimately the health of the planet is put at risk.” — Jess Pasisi.
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“The lack of white settlers in the Moana doesn’t mean that colonisation didn’t happen. Instead, corporate colonisation meant that corporates extracted natural resources and labour.” — Tulia Thompson.
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“Our world is changing so fast that many of last century’s realities are today not just irrelevant but even non-existent.” — Kennedy Warne.
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“The Treaty relationship needs to underpin the Climate Change Commission — and in fact, all the commissioners should be bound by Treaty obligations, such as to actively protect Māori rights.”
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