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There are forty-eight island nations scattered across the globe, from Indonesia, with its population of a quarter-billion, to Nauru, with barely ten-thousand inhabitants.
While the entire planet is experiencing the catastrophic effects of climate change resulting from carbon combustion, no locale is more imperiled than the islands threatened with inundation by rising seas:
Of course, the contemporary colonial empires have found any number of ways of rendering the islands of the world uninhabitable:
Tonga - unique among Pacific nations - never completely lost its indigenous governance. The archipelagos of "The Friendly Islands" were united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845. Tonga became a constitutional monarchy in 1875 and a British protectorate in 1900; it withdrew from the protectorate and joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970. Tonga remains the only monarchy in the Pacific; in 2008, King George TUPOU V announced he was relinquishing most of his powers leading up to parliamentary elections in 2010. TUPOU died in 2012 and was succeeded by his brother 'Aho'eitu TUPOU VI. Tropical Cyclone Gita, the strongest-ever recorded storm to impact Tonga, hit the islands in February 2018 causing extensive damage.
World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
Fiji Islands
Main languages: Fijian, Hindi, Rotuman, English
Main religions: Christianity (mainly Methodist Church), Hindu, Muslim
Minority groups include Indo-Fijians 313,798 (37.5 per cent ), Rotumans 10,335(1.2 per cent), Banabans and Melanesians (from Solomon Islands and New Hebrides). The population consists of two principal ethnic groups: the indigenous Melanesian population or those of mixed Melanesian-Polynesian origin (subsequently referred to as indigenous Fijians), who now constitute a majority of the population (475,739, 56.8 per cent), and the Indo-Fijian (commonly referred to as Indian) population (data: Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics, 2007[1] ).
While indigenous Fijians tend to be regarded as Melanesians they are more homogeneous than in other Melanesian states. For example, they have one language, a more hierarchical and hereditary social structure, and a chiefly system more akin to those in Polynesia.
The remainder of the population is of diverse origins with a significant Polynesian group from the outlying island of Rotuma. Under Fijiâs citizenship and electoral laws, Rotumans are also regarded as indigenous (unlike the much larger Indo-Fijian community born in Fiji).
Banabans from Ocean Island (Kiribati) were settled in Fiji in the 1940s, after phosphate mining ruined their home island. There has been some migration from many other Pacific islands.
There is a small group of Melanesian islanders, descendants of those who were brought to Fiji from the Solomon Islands and New Hebrides (Vanuatu) during the 1800s to work on plantations.
There are other minority groups in Fiji â including the Chinese (whose numbers are again increasing) and other Pacific islanders, who are often temporary residents. Sikhs also comprise a small religious minority (2,548, 0.3 per cent). There are many Pacific islanders at the University of the South Pacific, and there have occasionally been tensions between some national groups there.
The legacy of colonialism for the island nations remains what it has always represented to the peoples who first settled them- the threat of eradication:
The TaĂno civilization indigenous to the Greater Antilles-Caribbean Sea (Hispaniola) flourished in the islands including Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Jamaica and Puerto Rico before and during the time when Christopher Columbus landed on the beaches of the New World in 1492.
Columbus did not discover a lost or unknown land. There was a flourishing civilization of native Americans. The primary group was the Arawak/TaĂno Indians. Arawak is the general group to which they belong, and describes especially the common language which this group of native Americans shared. They ranged from Venezuela through the Caribbean and Central America all the way to Florida. However, the particular group of Arawak-speaking people who lived on the island of Hispaniola were the TaĂno Indians.
Through archeological excavation much has been learned about the TaĂno as well as documentation from Fray RamĂłn PanĂ©. Fray PanĂ© was appointed by Columbus to record the Taino customs. Living amongst the TaĂno, Fray PanĂ© learning their language, religion and worship of the zemi gods as well as Taino music, and culture.
Some Pre-Columbian historians consider the TaĂno as Arawaks because they spoke Arawakan and had originally traveled to the Caribbean from the Amazon Basin in the North Eastern part of South America during the 6th centuryâŠ
There is a great debate as to just how many Arawak/TaĂno inhabited Hispaniola when Columbus landed in 1492. Some of the early Spanish historian/observers claimed there were as many as 3,000,000 to 4,000,000. These numbers seem to be based on very little reliable evidence and are thought to be gross exaggerations. However, since nothing like a census was done, the methods for estimating the numbers are extremely shaky, whether by these early historians or later critics.
One long technical article on the population comes in the with the low estimate of 100,000. Several other modern scholars seem to lean more forcefully in the area of 300,000 to 400,000. Whatever the number, what happened to them is extremely tragic. They were not immune to European diseases, especially smallpox, and the Spanish worked them unmercifully in the mines and fields. By 1507 the Spanish were settled and able to do a more reliable job of counting the Arawak/TaĂno. It is generally agreed that by 1507 their numbers had shrunk to 60,000. By 1531 the number was down to 600. Today there are no easily discerned traces of the Arawak/TaĂno at all except for some of the archaeological remains that have been found. Not only on Hispaniola, but also across the Windward Passage in Cuba, complete genocide was practiced on these natives.
The violent political conflicts that afflict the globe are present in many Island Nations:
Why are more Indonesian women getting involved in bomb attacks?
Women have played an increasingly prominent role in hardline attacks in Indonesia in a development that reflects ISILâs influence, analysts say.
25 May 2021
Noor Huda Ismail, a former member of the hardline group Darul Islam who has since founded the Institute for International Peace Building and runs deradicalisation programmes and workshops across Indonesia, told Al Jazeera that social media had played a part in the womenâs move into direct violenceâŠ
âRadicalisation isnât gender-neutral and is experienced differently by men and women. We need to look at gender as a social construct and not in terms of biology. For example, the notion that men are inherently violent and women are inherently peaceful.â
But, he cautions, the study of gender within hardline groups is something that remains in its infancy...
However, there may also be more mundane and practical reasons for womenâs more active role.
âWe saw the more explicit call by ISIS for women to engage in jihad against the enemy back in 2017, which you can see as less of a feminist breakthrough for ISIS, but more a necessity given they were on the back foot and needed to mobilise all sectors of the so-called caliphate to survive,â Jacob said.
When asked how he has been treated in Indonesia, Najib*, a refugee who currently lives in Tanjung Pinang, answered, âThe sentence Iâve heard most often from the Indonesian authorities is âwe never invited you to come here. If youâre not happy with the way you are treated, go back to your countryââ.
I have heard many similar stories of discrimination from refugees and asylum seekers living in Indonesia. Zia* has been in the country since 2014, one of more than 6000 Afghans who have temporary found refuge there. âI remember last year during Ramadan, Sunni Muslim refugees who were fasting and going to masjid were allowed to stay outside at night for a few hours, but we, Shia Muslim refugees, were forced to stay inside our roomsâ, he told me.
Racism towards refugees in Indonesia is a thorny social issue. As part of the Nuraga Project, focused on collecting the stories of refugees living in Indonesia, I met and interviewed refugees and engaged in online conversation with others via Facebook. I wanted to hear from them about the forms of racism that they have experienced during their protracted situations in Indonesia.
Sri Lanka: Muslims Face Threats, Attacks
Authorities Should Act Against Incitement by Buddhist Nationalists
Human Rights Watch
July 3, 2019
In June 2019, Human Rights Watch interviewed Muslim victims of abuses, activists, lawyers, and officials to document abuses against Muslims, often with state complicityâŠ
Government leaders, instead of fulfilling their duty to protect Muslim citizens, have at times appeared to associate themselves with Buddhist nationalist elements. Many stood by when nine Muslim cabinet and junior ministers felt compelled to resign after the opposition accused them of supporting Islamist militants. On May 23, President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned Gnanasara Thero, the leader of the nationalist Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) who has long been associated with instigating deadly anti-Muslim violence, freeing him after he had served less than a year of a six-year prison term for contempt of court.
Sirisena also ordered a ban on face coverings in public as one of a number of emergency measures imposed following the Easter Sunday bombings, which has led to the targeting of Muslim women even for using headscarves. One activist, explaining that Muslim women face constant harassment, including in government buildings and public spaces, said: âIt is very difficult for them to bear. Their dignity is challenged continually.â
The criminal law has also been invoked to arrest peaceful critics of Sri Lankan Buddhism in violation of their rights to free expression.
The situation has caused mounting international alarm for the safety of Muslims and other minorities. In her opening statement at the UN Human Rights Council on June 24, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she was âdisturbed by reports of anti-Muslim attacksâ in Sri Lanka, including ârecent statements by some religious leaders inciting violence [that] constitute worrying early warning indicators that should be addressed.â
Alvin Powell/ Harvard University
MARCH 25, 2019
In her book Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia, Harvard Review editor Christina Thompson examines what's known about what might be humanity's most epic migration, and what questions remain. She also explores the investigation itself, how different times and changing Western assumptions colored the inquiries into native peoples' abilities and their past, and how sometimes the right questions were asked, even though the tools didn't yet exist to answer themâŠ
THOMPSON: First of all, it's the distance, the sheer distance. Once you get out to the far reaches of the Polynesian Triangle [bounded by New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island], you're talking about distances of over 2,000 miles between some of the islands. The idea that anyone would first explore out that far and then would go back and forth, and develop a navigational capacity that would enable them to do that sort of thing, it was just mind-bending to me.
So distance was a piece of it. Then, although people make a great deal about the fact that they didn't have metal tools, I think the thing that was most interesting was they didn't have writing. They had to not only develop that navigational capacity, they had to pass it on. If you think about how they did that in an oral culture, that also seems amazing to meâŠ
There are periods, at the end of the 18th century and in the 19th century, when Europeans who were interested in this subject were actually not that skeptical at all of Polynesian voyaging capacity.
Some of the 19th-century figures I write about took for grantedâcompletelyâthat Polynesians had been the greatest navigators ever. They were convinced that they had sailed these distances and they had gone back and forth repeatedly.
What I saw that sort of surprised me, because it ran contrary to the conventional wisdom, was a rise in skepticism in the 20th century. My interpretation is that this is because we're actually moving away from understanding the people. We're moving away in time from real contact with the islanders and a real understanding of what they were doing.
Is there a future for the island nations?
What might this future look like?
Small island developing states have been caught in a perfect stormâfinancial, natural, and social. This is one of the key messages of the President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) H.E. Ambassador Munir Akram during a special event where he recognized how high debt overhangs, internally high risk, and short-term maturity debts are creating impossible financial problems for [SIDS] ability to recover from the crisis. On top of this, SIDS get the short end of the stick as they face the brunt of the climate crisis. Despite all these vulnerabilities, the President pointed out that SIDS have been largely ineligible for debt suspension during the pandemic and called for innovative solutions to enable SIDS to access development financing. H.E. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) stated the importance of allowing SIDS to access the relevant international relief mechanisms to address the crisis and to prevent a lost decade of development. H.E. Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados also underlined that now is the time for vulnerability to be embraced as part of the criteria to determine access to concessional finance for SIDS.
But as SIDS know, building forward better is more than just restarting the economy. As UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said, "the pandemic exposed outdated aspects of the economy," and highlighted the Human Development Report 2020 as "an unapologetic signal to the world that the way we measure development in the future must evolve."
Oceaniaâs Indigenous Peoples Rising
Joshua Cooper/Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine
September 2014
The communities of Oceania face severe, imminent consequences connected with climate change. Because of rising sea levels, low-lying atoll areas are already being flooded and coastal shores eroded, along with salt water intrusion. The results are violations of the residentsâ fundamental human rights to water, food, housing, and health. Yet there are many more consequences impacting the cultures and livelihoods of Pacific Islanders. Beyond the sea water seeping into the soil, there is also acidification of the ocean, which is leading to coral bleaching. The death of the coral equates to the loss of an important natural barrier to king tides and rising sea levels, as well as loss of a food source. Shell fish cannot survive and fish no longer inhabit the dying reefs.
Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific arenât waiting to be saved, however. Instead, they are showing significant strength in sharing knowledge and strategic initiatives of the islands. Kiribati is an example of education, empowerment, and engagement at all levels of society. At the community level, the Otin Taai Declaration of 2004 outlines basic economic, social, and cultural rights. Beyond mere words, the work is impressive with over 37,000 mangroves planted under the Kiribati Environment and Conservation Division Kiribati Adaptation Program Phase IIâŠ
Climate change is an insidious form of colonialism denying the fundamental freedoms of Indigenous Peoples. It is no longer an ominous threat of the future but a dawning, deadly reality.
UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues â 14th Session: Concept Note for Discussion
The Pacific Islands are home to a diverse range of indigenous peoples speaking 19 percent of the worldâs estimated 5,000 languages. Indigenous peoples in the Pacific are still linked to their communal lands, belief systems, spirituality and customary laws which forms the basis of their social, economic and political systems. Due to the diversity of Pacific countries and territories, there are significant variations in the social, political and economic situation of indigenous peoples in the region. The small developing States of the Pacific face specific environmental, social and economic challenges that have significant impacts on indigenous peoples exercising their human rights. One distinctive feature of the Pacific region is that indigenous peoples make up the majority in most Pacific Island countries. At the same time in some countries in the Pacific region, colonial settlements and immigration has reduced the indigenous population to a minority in their own lands such as the Kanaks of Kanaky/New Caledonia who make up 44 percent of the population; the Kanaka Maoli of Hawaii (18 per cent); the Maori of Atearoa/New Zealand(15 per cent); the Chamorro of Guam (14 per cent) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia (2 per cent).
When most States adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, Australia and New Zealand were two of the four dissenting States. Among the 11 overall abstentions was a Pacific nation, Samoa. Those positions have now changed and Australia, New Zealand and Samoa have all declared their support for the UN Declaration. Among the 34 non-voting States were 10 Pacific nations: Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Only one Pacific nation, Federated States of Micronesia voted in favour of the UN Declaration.
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