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APPRECIATING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE – FROM ELDERS TO TEXTBOOKS ANNMARY RADUVA AnnMary Raduva is a 16 year old in Year 11 at Saint Joseph’s Secondary School in Fiji. She is a teen climate activist and conservationist and founder of “Say NO to Balloon Releasing Fiji”1 and “Young Eco-Champs Fiji”2. AnnMary is an internationally-recognised eco-champ, public speaker, influencer, advocate and student.
Informal education like songs, art, storytelling and traveling taught me more about how to preserve the environment than learning that in the classroom. It has helped me to recognise the pollution that is linked to the releasing of balloons. It will take a while for people to equate the release of balloons into the atmosphere with future pollution. Pacific Islanders do have a special relationship with the climate because their lives evolve around the sea. It is their source of food security. My mother shares how the climate and the sea patterns dictate their protein supply: the darkest night of the month, lit lit he ta, means lobsters, and a moonlit and very low tide on the reef means red bass. They equate the weather patterns and seasons with food stock. The traditional navigators know the currents, the wind patterns, the stars to steer by and the season to set sail. They judge the prevailing winds and know the best tropical food to preserve for those long voyages. This knowledge needs to be re-taught, for us and the beautiful planet. The traditional knowledge is present in the villages, but how much of that is passed down to the children is an open question. My mother grew up on the far-flung island of Rotuma, 460km north-west of Fiji’s main island of Viti
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER | VOLUME 29: ISSUE 1 – MARCH 2020
Levu. She relays how the elders taught them the tell-tale warning signs that a tsunami is arriving and identifying the beginning of the hurricane season; spanning November to April. They were lessons inherited during her childhood. To some, my ‘Say No Balloon Release Campaign’ is an intrusion on their rights, a restriction on their event management and enjoyment. The establishment of the “Say NO to Balloon Releasing” and the “Young Eco Champions Network” aim to empower and support young activists, because we feel that not a lot of attention is given to young activists below the age of 18, thus the urgency to establish a network or league for young ecochampions. Not everyone’s story will go viral but the more empowering stories we have, the better it is. Additionally, this is our future we are talking about. The recent environmental breaches here in Fiji namely, at Savusavu and Malolo 3, are a wake-up call for my generation. I also created the Young Eco Champions network for children under 18 to reshape the awareness landscape around climate change and the ecological crisis. I am confident that this network of young, inspired and empowered activists will create change in protecting our environment. There is always a misconception that young children have no say on climate change and conservation issues, and we face discrimination because of our age and gender.
