Tonga's youth urge action on climate change with powerful message [1]
Monday, December 5, 2016 - 23:18. Updated on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 - 12:30.
On a little stage in Nuku’alofa, a powerful resonating message has emerged from a small group of young performers who, in raising awareness of climate change, are urging everyone to take heed of the imminent danger.
Tonga’s youth in a powerful and passionate display of dance and drama as part of the opening ceremony of the Mahina Festival held on 14 November in Nuku’alofa, asked:
"Are we so blinded now that we do not see the sky covered in confused and strange clouds?
What has happened to our warrior voices that we do not announce the danger and prepare our children?"
The adverse effects of climate change pose a real threat to Pacific Island countries and Tonga’s youth are taking it very seriously, given rising sea levels and the increasing occurrence and force of natural disasters.
For it’s our youth who will have to deal with the detrimental effects of the climate change left to them and to future generations of Pacific Islanders, who have good reason to fear their uncertain future.
“We are subject to fate,
to be evacuated from our ancestral land,
our family home, the roots of our identity.
We are drifting,
our future uncertain.”
At a time when they see not only industrialised countries spoiling the environment while their own people do the same, and the threat of a new United States President turning his back on climate change agreements, and the oceans are filled with waste, their concerns seem to fall on deaf ears. The youth say they are tired:
"Tired of the same conversations.
Tired of the thoughtless actions.
Tired of standing alone against the giants.
Have we really become so deaf as to not hear the cries of our earth choking?
Although they fear the worst they are facing the challenges of the future:
"The air, water and land inspire me, evoking my heritage, my culture.
I see the beauty of this world all around me, but I fear and I see that it is all fading.
That the damage has already been done.
I see the world changing.
Oil slicks and chemicals colour the water as my vaka glides along.
Plastic bags, water bottles, junk wrappers floating on the water, trapped in the reef as i swim past.
Smoke in my lungs as others burn plastic, rubbish and tyres on the land."
Actions count
The organisers of the festival, On the Spot, will continue to raise awareness of the issue and will keep urging people that every little action counts. They hope that:
“We can protect our world from more damage,
reversing the cycle,
we need to look,
we need to learn,
we need to listen to our world”.
They say it is time to tackle the issues that older generations have not paid enough attention to.
"We – the children of the Pacific – we are prepared to give back to the earth what you have had taken from it. And we demand the same from all. It’s time to repay our debts to nature.
With these words, we accuse the consumers, the large chemical companies, the manipulators, the controllers of the food chain, the wagers of war, the conquerors, the colonisers, the masters of of fear, the industrial powers, the looters, the profiteers, the thieves, the greedy for whom more is never enough."
Festival director Steev Maka Laufilitoga and Ebonie Fifita composed the spoken pieces that were performed at the opening of the festival by Ebonie Fifita, Mosese Fineanganofo and Kaufononga Pulu.
The festival, an annual event, was a six day/night public event from 14 - 19 November and was supported this year by the Environment Department’s Ridge to Reef project under the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Climate Change and Communications and the Bank South Pacific - Tonga.