Pacific Views

Abstract

The Pacific Views exhibition was open to the public from August 2021 to July 2022 in the Museum’s historic photography gallery. We drew upon eco-poetics to reflect the ways that peoples across the Pacific talk about their concerns for their communities. The ‘views’ presented in the exhibition are in the images from the Macleay collections of the lands and waters of Oceanic peoples and in the poems of nine authors: Apisai Enos, Déwé Gorodé, John Kasaipwalova, Fenton Lutunatabua, Grace Mera Molisa, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Craig Santos Perez, Terisa Siagatonu and Makiuti Tongia.

This exhibition juxtaposes photographic views by colonial Europeans with ideas from the oral traditions of Pacific peoples. Through poetry and songs, Pacific Views catapults these sporadic photographic moments of extraordinary change into our own uncertain times as the climate warms beyond 1.5ºC. Listening to their views on this humanitarian and ecological crisis is part of the talanoa framework of climate change action.

In 2018, to halt the non-productive bitterness provoked by the Paris Agreement, the United Nations mandated the Talanoa Dialogue, built on the Fijian concept of talanoa, which emphasises inclusive decision-making based on storytelling. The Talanoa Dialogue strives to remove blame and build on directly learning from the ideas and experiences of all.

Pacific Views is presented in partnership with the Sydney Environment Institute and PARADISEC, the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures.