Pacific artists use photography and storytelling to challenge global leaders at COP31

Pacific artists are using the power of storytelling to challenge world leaders to turn climate promises into action at COP31 in Türkiye this week.

TheTrouble in Paradise: Climate Change in the Pacific exhibition features 25 photographs selected from more than 300 entries in a climate change photography competition, capturing the impacts of the climate crisis on everyday life.

Among the featured works is Young Women of the Islands by Samoan-New Zealand photographer Faaiuga Vaialia, whose image of six Pacific women holding hands represent solidarity between island communities and the diaspora.

Vaialia believes photography offers something that statistics and political discussions cannot always communicate.

"Photos speak more than words, and they show the livable experiences that people in the Pacific are going through with climate change," she told RNZ Pacific.

"They can see firsthand what the effects of climate change is currently doing, and it has it's not it's not nothing new."

The photograph, taken in Auckland before the Covid-19 pandemic was created to remind Pacific communities that those living overseas are just as committed to the fight for climate justice.

Her work is among the images being presented to global audiences as part of an effort to ensure Pacific voices are heard in global climate discussions.

The exhibition was developed by the British Council New Zealand following a UK government photography competition.

It has since travelled the world, with exhibits in New Zealand, Samoa and Brussels.

British Council representative Natasha Beckman said it had been well received, including by King Charles III.

"Our patron King Charles, when we were in Samoa, asked for us to create a pop-up version of this exhibition for the heads of state banquet dinner that he was hosting. So the fact that people like that, these images in this exhibition resonates is so exciting," she said.

"When we were in Samoa, we were fortunate enough to have the Prime Minister of Samoa speak at the opening, as well as other dignitaries and the then secretary-general of the Commonwealth Patricia Scotland, was kind enough to endorse the exhibition and speak on camera.

"And also Lord Collins of Highbury, who is now a deputy leader in the House of Lords, who chose one of his favourite photographs and talked about it in context of the rest of the exhibition."

She said the photography could connect with decision-makers on a deeper level.

Beckman noted how the photographs also highlight the injustice faced by Pacific communities who contribute the least to global emissions, but bare the greatest consequences.

"Some of these photographs are really devastating, but they also have a sense of hope as well.

"One of the messages that really resonates, and we want to convey is that the Pacific communities are the lowest emitting communities and the hardest hit."

And as the exhibition reaches COP31, Vaialia hopes her photograph will encourage world leaders to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and make meaningful commitments to the Pacific.

"Our Pacific islands are paradises. Like they're such beautiful homes, and if we don't face or don't try and resolve the issue of climate change, they won't longer look like paradise.

"They'll just look like flooded lands and some villages going under the sea. So it is actually 'trouble in paradise' and if we don't save it now, it might not be paradise anymore."

But the message isn't only about the damage climate change is causing, it is also about the strength and resilience of Pacific people.

Samoan-Tongan poet Zech Soakai will join Vaialia for a public discussion at Auckland Maritima Museum on 12 November to explore how art can amplify Pacific voices in the fight for climate justice.

Soakai said poetry and other forms of storytelling have an important role in making complex issues accessible while emphasizing the human consequenses of the climate crisis.

"I think storytelling in any shape or form, whether that's poetry or photography or stop motion or whatever it is has this really important job of making sense of what can be really hard, jargon-heavy science, and then recentering the heart amongst it.

"Because not all of us are literate in science, but all of us have things that we can do to both prevent, slow down, and then also build much more sustainable worlds."

He added that the Pacific must also challenge narratives that only portray island communities as victims.

"We as Pacific people are not drowning; we are fighting, and that hope is very much grounded both in audaciousness, but also through ancestry, and that's kind of what superpowers and keeps the light on so to speak."

The exhibition, 'Trouble in Paradise: Performance and Panel Discussion', is free and open to the public, but online registration is encouraged.

It also forms part of the New Zealand Maritime Museum's 'Our Ocean of Islands' exhibition.

Soakai will open the evening with a poem.