I will not go down without a fight for climate justice
Some people have the luxury to choose whether to campaign for climate justice or pursue their dreams. My people are at the frontline of this climate crisis. We do not have the luxury of a choice.
Our people, the land, and the ocean
I grew up on one of the remote islands in the Solomon Islands.
I’ve learned a lot from my aunties and uncles about the value you can add to the land, the environment, and the value it adds to you. So it’s a relationship.
"I grew up on one of the remote islands in the Solomon Islands...my people are at the frontline of this climate crisis." Cynthia Houniuhi. Photo: Tini Media / Oxfam
I have heard stories from my grandparents about how our people came to be. A big part of the story portrays a spiritual connection between our people, the land, and the ocean.
I learned to value the environment that I lived in and I remember enjoying being outdoors. The outdoors was a classroom for me and every other child in the Solomon Islands.
Interacting with nature was where we learned about which plants were edible and which ones were not. How to tell if bad weather is coming and what to do during bad storms.
Transport to our remote island has always been a huge issue. When we’d go to school, we had to cross the ocean to get to the classes on the other island. When we finished classes, we were either in the ocean or in the gardens helping our community. That is how we learn about our culture as well.
Climate change has undermined intergenerational learning
In the Solomon Islands, our communities are very much about intergenerational learning – learning from our elders.
Over the years I have seen first-hand how climate change has undermined this intergenerational learning.
Due to unpredictable frequent rainfalls, trips to the garden have been reduced for safety reasons.
I have seen how children from a young age are now taught how to swim – not so that they can enjoy it but more for the sake of surviving when the high tides come in their backyard due to sea level rise.”
- Cynthia Houniuhi
The 2014 Solomon Islands floods
In 2014 I witnessed my country go into a state of emergency after heavy rainfalls which caused a devastating flood that resulted in the loss of lives.
After devastating events such as the 2014 floods, we are the ones who have to pick ourselves up and move on with life again.
Each time we pick ourselves up, there is another “natural disaster” that knocks us down again.
We contribute almost nothing to this crisis, yet we pay the highest price. A price we cannot afford yet we are forced to pay. Where is the justice in that? Frontline communities like mine are already struggling to make ends meet and now also pay the price for the benefit of big emitters.
These experiences move one to act. Some people have the luxury to choose whether to campaign for climate justice or pursue their dreams. My people are at the frontline of this climate crisis. We do not have the luxury of a choice.
I fight so that my people and their children will live in dignity without fear of climate change denying them that right.
Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change
In 2019, I was one of 27 youth activists and law students who formed the PISFCC (Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change) – a campaign to persuade the leaders of the Pacific Island Forum to take the issue of climate change and human rights to the International Court of Justice.
All of us came from eight different Pacific Islands. We all came from communities at the frontline of the climate crisis.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
As students, we were aware that our government leaders were doing their part in representing us internationally – in the negotiation room, conferences, and workshops.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
We were aware of the women in the villages trying to plant certain vegetables to adapt to the different weather patterns and using their traditional knowledge to ensure food security.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
We were also aware of how young and old men in our villages are trying to build sea walls, as the sea keeps intruding into our homes.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
And so we were reflecting on ourselves and thinking, as law students, what do we add to this fight? What is our contribution to our communities?”
Cynthia Houniuhi
Cynthia Photo credit: Sahil Chandra/PISFCC
We were challenged to use our knowledge to find a legal pathway to bring about ambitious climate actions that will reflect the urgency of the crisis for our people.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
What use is our knowledge if it’s not to address the single greatest threat to our people?”
Cynthia Houniuhi
While the world is moving at no more than a glacial pace, our fishermen are risking their lives to find food for their families in the unpredictable weather.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
Our women are risking their lives to walk further distances to find clean water because of saltwater intrusion.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
These experiences for our aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, and children are the motivation that pushed us to start this group, we needed ambitious climate action.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
We have had enough lip service and words without the action to support it.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
We need the world to be serious. This is a climate crisis and we need to say it and see it as it is.”
Cynthia Houniuhi
If we don't do anything now, who will?
At the start of our activism, I remember being very scared of the outside world. Will they listen to us from small islands that are so far from those responsible?
I remember speaking to someone from Spain and they asked me where the Solomon Islands are. I tried to show them on the map but I couldn’t even find it. We are only a dot on the map.
But we were very determined. If we don’t do anything now, then who will? There are no risks or challenges that outweigh the consequences if we do not fight.
Even reading the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report feels unreal, like you’re reading about your fate but the ones responsible do not care enough to address the root cause.
I will not go down without a fight for climate justice.
At the start of the campaign, some of our people at the start that discouraged us from pursuing the climate justice advisory opinion campaign and not believing in the fight because they felt hopeless. That is why the climate justice fight and every tool we can use is important because it is about hope for our people that a better future is possible.
Make Rich Polluters Pay
Our legal campaign to the International Court of Justice is about hope, and the Make Rich Polluters Pay Campaign is too; hope that climate justice is possible. That our people who need it the most will get the support they deserve, especially from those who benefit most from this.
These two worthy campaigns are linked and they seek to put humans at the centre of climate action. Together we can start a conversation and discussion around accountability to existing responsibilities and obligations. For too long the international community especially those causing this crisis behaved as if they do not have responsibilities and obligations to the present and future generations.
I will not sit back and watch as the future of my present generation and generations yet to come is being destroyed.
Science is on our side, we know the cause and those responsible, let’s make noise and teach our present and future generations about being accountable for one’s actions. I believe in a world where those at the frontline can deal with the adverse effects, and the Make Rich Polluters Pay campaign can deliver that.
We are in a critical decade and we need to be serious and stop asking nicely. There is nothing nice about the way the climate crisis is hitting my people.”
- Cynthia Houniuhi
"I grew up on one of the remote islands in the Solomon Islands...my people are at the frontline of this climate crisis." Cynthia Houniuhi. Photo: Tini Media / Oxfam
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