Talking about climate change: Veitalanoa in Fijian climate change research

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Journal Article
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Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies
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Date
2024
Authors
Cagivinaka, Vilive
Reynolds, Martyn
Baleisomi, Sereima
Vatuloka, Sera
Sanga, Kabini
Abstract

Research is currently being conducted in Fiji into climate change resilience and adaption. Among the research strands is work focussed on village and community levels that values customary local knowledge and experience. At the same time, there is a growing corpus of more general research literature from Oceania that illustrates the revelatory potential of Indigenous oralities, customary dialogic practices leveraged for research contexts. Weaving these threads together, this article is a discussion of the potential of veitalanoa, an Indigenous Fijian orality, to contribute to climate change research. Our investigation of the potential of veitalanoa includes the Indigenous Fijian references of vanua, veiwekani, solesolevaki and yalomatua. The inquiry is framed by the Oceania Oralities Framework (Sanga and Reynolds, in press), a tool that points to the embracing nature of oralities-driven research that enables data to be holistically mapped on to a range of universal domains, contextually shaping these in the process. The results suggest that locally focussed research would do well to explore the promise of veitalanoa more deeply than previously when seeking to understand local Fijian responses and adaptions to the global issue of climate change. Looking wider, the Fijian example suggests the potential of Oceania oralities in nuanced climate change research in other contexts.

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CC BY 4.0