RISING WAVES OF CHANGE: SOCIOCULTURAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE VILLAGE OF TAFITOALA, SĀMOA, IN THE FACE OF GLOBALIZATION A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‗I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN PACIFIC ISLANDS STUDIES AUGUST 2011 By Asuka Hirabe Thesis Committee: Terence Wesley-Smith, Chairperson John Mayer Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka Keywords: climate change, globalization, relocation, culture, Tafitoala, Sāmoa ii © Copyright 2011 by Asuka Hirabe iii For Sa‗ili, Lina, Malae, Faleolo, Sina, PJ, Jiri, Aska, William, and the people of Tafitoala iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Words cannot express my deepest gratitude towards those who contributed in one way or another to this endeavor. Without all of you, this work would not have been possible. I first would like to thank the people of Tafitoala, to whom this work is dedicated: Sa‗ili, Lina, Malae, Netina, Sina, PJ, Jiri, Aska, Will, Ula, Moliga and the rest of the family and the village. My utmost appreciation goes out to you for your love and support, and for providing me with a home away from home. I also would like to extend my gratitude to Otilia, Ale, Falefata, Lina, Fa‗asafua, Malae, Su‗esu‗e, and Pepa for all those fascinating stories, which are the foundation of this study. I am blessed to have gotten to learn them. Many thanks to Faleolo and Fotu for your help and assistance with interviews and translation. I am grateful to all of you for the love, hospitality, and companionship. My sincere appreciation goes out to my committee members: Terence Wesley-Smith for your guidance, encouragement, personal conversations, and for always having faith in me; John Mayer for all the Samoan-related insights and references that came from the library that is your brain; and Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka for your friendship, constructive advice, and the countless number of stories you shared with me at the kava circle. I am forever thankful to all of you for seeing me through this journey. I know it took a great deal of patience. I was blessed with a tremendous amount of support for this research from several institutions and individuals. I would like to acknowledge the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai‗i at Mānoa for its guidance, assistance, and funding, and for giving me an opportunity to grow; the East-West Center in Hawai‗i for its hospitality, research grants and funding, scholarship that enabled me to pursue master‘s degree, and for providing me with an environment which certainly enhanced my school life; Mendl Djunaidy v of the East-West Center for all of your assistance and also for always keeping me in your thoughts; Katia Koteva of Outreach College at the University of Hawai‗i at Mānoa for being so much more than an adviser to me; the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in Sāmoa for allowing me to access its library and facility during my fieldwork; Dean Solofa, Ewan Cameron, and Espen Ronneberg of the SPREP for your assistance and for the opportunity to attend the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change inception meeting; Easter Galuvao, Meapelo Maiai, Justin Locke, who were with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sāmoa at the time of my fieldwork and Gabor Vereczi currently with the UNDP in Sāmoa for welcoming me to your workplace and for your insights on the climate change topic; Asofou So‗o of the National University of Sāmoa for fascinating conversations and your assistance with my research; and a countless number of people from Sāmoa‘s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Sāmoa Meteorology Division, the Sāmoa Bureau of Statistics, the Sāmoa Water Authority, Oceania University of Medicine in Sāmoa, the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, the Asia Pacific Migration Research Network, the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization in Sāmoa, and Japan International Cooperation Agency in Sāmoa. Special thanks to friends who have directly helped me through this research: Joseph Brider for your professional insights and for always believing in me; James Viernes for guiding me through the course of my master‘s degree in Pacific Islands Studies; Filifotu Va‗ai and Litia Brighouse for looking after me during my fieldwork in Sāmoa; Walter Fa‗amatuainu for helping me with translation; Batistino Mponzi for your technical support and expertise; Candice Steiner for editing this master‘s thesis; and Nikola Komailevuka for always taking care of my leftover work. Also many, many thanks and much alofa to the Pan Pacific Association and to the friends I saw and hung out with every day at Hale Halawai (you know vi who you are), sharing stories, drinks, and kava; exchanging inspiring conversations; singing and dancing; motivating each other; distracting each other from stressful academic work at times; and most importantly sharing a friendship that will last for a lifetime and that have made my days in Hawai‗i worthwhile. Also, many thanks to my friends at the Pacific Islands Development Program of the East-West Center, Hale Mānoa dormitory (especially the ones of the 3rd floor Ewa side kitchen), and Te Vevo Tahiti no Mānoa. My life in Hawai‗i wouldn‘t have been the same without you all. And finally, thank you Papa, Mama, Tomo and the rest of the extended family for raising me to be the person I am today, for always accepting me for who I am, putting up with my free-spirited lifestyle, and for taking care of each other during my absence. Your love and support have always been the core of my strength and have gotten me through this phase of my life. For that, thank you, from deep in my heart… To those who I may have missed but who do deserve my gratitude, please know that I am thankful for all the help you have given me at various stages and in numerous ways throughout this endeavor. vii ABSTRACT While climate change leads to unprecedented alterations throughout the world in the way we live our lives, its effects particularly on the sociocultural aspects of our lives are very little known. This master‘s thesis draws examples from a small sinking village called Tafitoala in Sāmoa to illuminate the invisible, intangible, and immeasurable effects of climate change from the perspective of the local people who have often been overshadowed by and undervalued because of the ‗more important things‘ and ‗bigger problems‘ that seem to concern the world‘s mainstream today. This is the ‗human‘ side of the story, beyond numbers and scientific facts. More specifically, this thesis explores how climate change affects the lives, minds, and hearts of the victims, how it disrupts indigenous culture and its continuation in this age of globalization, and how such a disruption influences the overall wellbeing of the affected peoples as the rising waves of change make their way ad infinitum to the shores of Tafitoala. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................................... IV ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... XI PREFACE: MY MALAGA ................................................................................................................... XIII CHAPTER 1: RISING WAVES OF CHANGE ........................................................................................ 1 GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ............................................................................................................................................. 8 GLOBALIZATION & TRANSFORMATION IN THE WAY OF LIFE IN SĀMOA ............................................................ 14 METHODOLOGY & APPROACH ..................................................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER 2: CLIMATE CHANGE AND TAFITOALA – THEN & NOW ....................................... 24 ONCE WERE VILLAGES .................................................................................................................................................. 29 TAFITOALA‘S ENVIRONMENT TODAY ......................................................................................................................... 40 SOCIAL DILEMMA ............................................................................................................................................................. 48 CHAPTER 3: CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBALIZATION, & SOCIOCULTURAL IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 56 INTERRELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE CHANGE & GLOBALIZATION ..................................................................... 57 HISTORY WASHED AWAY ............................................................................................................................................... 65 CHAPTER 4: WORLDVIEW OF FANUA ............................................................................................. 69 FANUA AS GENEALOGY, HISTORY, AND IDENTITY .................................................................................................