Abstract
Throughout the island groups of the western Pacific, there exist culturally-grounded protocols for acknowledging once-inhabited places that have been submerged. Such protocols typically involve signs of respect made by persons sailing over sunken places; it is commonly said that a failure to abide by such protocols may result in calamity. Associated with these protocols are sights of lands beneath the ocean surface that are inhabited in much the same way as are those on modern island coasts. Sounds and scents coming from undersea lands have also been noted in some instances. These protocols and traditions are interpreted as reconstituted memories of land sinking, often hundreds of years ago, that enabled them to be preserved and sustained in pre-literate (oral) contexts. These protocols and traditions are referenced through a spiritual lens, the provision of land and its removal from human use being regarded as divine acts that need to be constantly acknowledged. The main function of these protocols and traditions is principally historical, enabling present populations to recall place-based pasts that give them identity and entitlement. Their function is also pragmatic, concerned with having people who are alive today understand past and present risks from environmental hazards, something that is key to sustaining livelihoods, especially in such tectonically unstable environments. In an era of climate change, where many coastal settlements are likely to be rendered uninhabitable in the next few decades as a result of sea-level rise, such protocols and traditions have a role to play in helping people adapt. For they demonstrate that issues of land loss and population displacement are not unprecedented in this region—and that anticipatory adaptation is therefore desirable. While the Pacific Islands region is a good place to document and analyse such cultural protocols and associated traditions, there are signs that such cultural expressions were once widespread and served similar purposes elsewhere in the world. This study shows that dismissing such cultural protocols and stories as ‘myth’ or ‘legend’ risks losing valuable insights into human pasts, especially in non-western contexts.