Fiji

The Pacific's Past Sets the Stage for a Voyage into its Future

Vaka canoe patroling Suva Harbor, Fiji (photo: Arlo Hemphill, Center for Ocean Solutions)

Arlo Hemphill by Arlo Hemphill, Communications Specialist 

Suva, Fiji.  The islands of the Pacific are separated by thousands of miles of deep, blue ocean. From space, they amount to little more than random specks of sand and rock adrift in a vast watery world.  Yet ancient mariners were able to navigate these then unchartered waters and populate the lonesome specks, becoming the Pacific Islander peoples of today.  Unfortunately, their tradition of open ocean navigation has been all but lost in modern times.  That is until recently.
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Fiji’s Call to Arms for the Pacific

Fiji's Pacific Coast (photo: Arlo Hemphill, Center for Ocean Solutions)

Arlo Hemphill by Arlo Hemphill, Communications Specialist 

Suva, Fiji.  Thunderous clapping from the seated meke dancers, a solo chant and then silence as a lone dancer, dressed in the grass skirt-like liku vau, delivers a bowl of kava to Meg Caldwell, Center for Ocean Solutions' Executive Director and one of a dozen special guests of honor at this traditional Fijian ceremony.  Ms. Caldwell is seated next to Joketani Cokanasiga, Fiji’s Minister of Fisheries, Forests and Agriculture, who greets the guests assembled from across the Pacific basin with a call to arms, a challenge for all the Pacific - nations and citizens alike - to work in unison in response to the major threats on the largest of our planet’s oceans.  The call now made, the bowls of kava are downed, and the dancers retake center stage, leading the group into a night of revelry and celebration of our shared future.  Read more...

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