Value of traditional oral narratives in building climate-change resilience: insights from rural communities in Fiji

Shaiza Z Janif; Patrick Nunn; Paul Geraghty; William Aalbersberg; Frank R Thomas; Mereoni Camailakeba

doi:10.5751/ES-08100-210207

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Value of traditional oral narratives in building climate-change resilience: insights from rural communities in Fiji

Journal article

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Value of traditional oral narratives in building climate-change resilience: insights from rural communities in Fiji

Shaiza Z Janif, Patrick Nunn, Paul Geraghty, William Aalbersberg, Frank R Thomas and Mereoni Camailakeba

Ecology and Society, Vol.21(2), 7

2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08100-210207

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Abstract

adaptation

climate change

community

Fiji

oral traditions

Pacific Islands

resilience

rural

In the interests of improving engagement with Pacific Island communities to enable development of effective and sustainable adaptation strategies to climate change, we looked at how traditional oral narratives in rural/peripheral Fiji communities might be used to inform such strategies. Interviews were undertaken and observations made in 27 communities; because the custodians of traditional knowledge were targeted, most interviewees were 70-79 years old. The view that oral traditions, particularly those referring to environmental history and the observations/precursors of environmental change, were endangered was widespread and regretted. Interviewees' personal experiences of extreme events (natural disasters) were commonplace but no narratives of historical (unwitnessed by interviewees) events were found. In contrast, experiences of previous village relocations attributable (mainly) to environmental change were recorded in five communities while awareness of environmentally driven migration was more common. Questions about climate change elicited views dominated by religious/fatalist beliefs but included some more pragmatic ones; the confusion of climate change with climate variability, which is part of traditional knowledge, was widespread. The erosion of traditional environmental knowledge in the survey communities over recent decades has been severe and is likely to continue apace, which will reduce community self-sufficiency and resilience. Ways of conserving such knowledge and incorporating it into adaptation planning for Pacific Island communities in rural/peripheral locations should be explored.

Details

Title: Value of traditional oral narratives in building climate-change resilience: insights from rural communities in Fiji
Authors: Shaiza Z Janif (Author) - University of South Pacific, Fiji
Patrick Nunn (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Paul Geraghty (Author) - University of South Pacific, Fiji
William Aalbersberg (Author) - University of South Pacific, Fiji
Frank R Thomas (Author) - University of South Pacific, Fiji
Mereoni Camailakeba (Author) - Fiji Museum, Fiji
Publication details: Ecology and Society, Vol.21(2), 7; 10
Publisher: Resilience Alliance Publications
Date published: 2016
DOI: 10.5751/ES-08100-210207
ISSN: 1708-3087
Copyright note: Copyright © 2016 by the author(s). Published under license by The Resilience Alliance. Reproduced with the permission of the author(s).
Organisation Unit: Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449412502621
Output Type: Journal article