PREAMBLE
(Gi Finu’ Chamoru):
Manetnon hit guini på’go Na ta tuna si Ásaina i Yahúlulo’,
Nu i géffina’tinås-ña siha, Nu i lina’lå’-ta, nu iya hita,
Nu i mañaina-ta, Nu i pa’å'-ta siha,
Nu i guinahå-ta, Yan hókkokok ayu ni ha na’guahåyi hit,
Taiguennao Mohon.
(In English):
We come together here today, To praise the Creator, the Most High,
For all of the great things they have done, For our lives, for each other,
For our elders/ancestors, for our ancestral words of wisdom,
For the things that we have, And for all of the things that they (the Creator) have provided for us,
And so shall it be (Amen)
- CHamoru prayer written by Jeremy N.C. Cepeda
We, peoples of the land and peoples of the ocean of the Pacifica/Oceania Region gathered in the Mariåna Islands, ancestral lands of the CHamoru people, islands closest to the Mariåna Trench, the deepest part of the earth. On October 20, 2023, at the Making Waves: Peace and Climate Justice Summit, we came together on the island of Guåhan, in solidarity with peoples from throughout Micronesia and the Pacific Rim, and with Indigenous allies and climate justice leaders from First Nation, Black, Caribbean, and other marginalized Territories and communities from across the globe committed to dismantling oppression. We join together in an urgent call for peace, unity, and climate justice in our islands and throughout the Pacific. We stand in solidarity with Palestine, Congo, Sudan, West Papua, Kanaky and all peoples experiencing genocide and oppression under colonialism.
Many voyaged across the waters to share our visions and struggles for a more peaceful, just, healthy, and sustainable future. Our waters bring us together and unite us. They create a bridge that connects our stories across communities. As Pacific peoples, we exercise the rights and fulfill the responsibilities given to us by the Creator for the lands and waters upon which we were placed. We have the right to govern ourselves and set a path for our collective future. We are rooted in our lands, waters, languages, and the wisdom and cultural practices and values of our ancestors. We call forth a future, guided by abundance, generosity, love, hope, and self-determination - free from militarization, colonialism, and climate injustice.
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Our communities have been harmed by centuries of military and colonial occupation that divides us, erodes our cultural practices and self-sufficiency, and leaves us more vulnerable to climate catastrophes. Global inaction on climate change and political tensions in our region threaten to exacerbate these conditions. Climate change has increased the strength and frequency of typhoons, flooding, earthquakes, wildfires, warming oceans, and the loss of vital resources including fish, corals, and native plants and species, which threatens our health and survival. Our peoples also face worsening economic conditions, with few opportunities for our youth, families, and elders to thrive in our lands. Our Indigenous peoples have been displaced and dispossessed, their lands and waters contaminated, taken, enclosed, and occupied by military and other forces. Our voices have been systematically divided, marginalized, and silenced in regional, national, and international decision-making forums that exclude us due to continued colonization and status as Non-Self-Governing Territories. For example, Guåhan and the Northern Mariånas Islands do not represent themselves in international governing bodies such as the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC). This directly impacts our ways of life and well-being. Our bodies, lands, and waters are poisoned by toxins from military operations and the dumping of plastics and nuclear waste in our oceans and lands. The Pacific Islands are responsible for less than 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions but experience some of the worst climate disasters in the world and have yet to receive restorative justice in the form of payments from the international community for loss and damages. We refuse to be silenced or continue to be sacrifice zones for the rest of the world. There is an opening now to repair, regenerate, and restore our relationship to our biodiversity and culture but we must act.
Our vision of the future centers on community-owned, climate-resilient infrastructures that honor Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), protocols, cultural practices, languages. multi-generational learning that continues the longstanding connection with and protection of sacred lands and waters are critical to its sustainable maintenance. We have abundance all around and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) integral to our identities to practice resilience and to thrive with investments in community-designed housing, transportation, healthcare, education, food, energy, water, and land rematriation. Our communities have sustainable and healthy practices for growing our own food and medicines and stewarding our lands and waters in balance with nature. We need the investments to manifest our futures.
We call on our decision makers, neighbors, world leaders, national and international governing bodies, and their militaries to honor treaties that protect our lands and waters; protect us from worsening climate change; protect the health and well-being of our people; and respect our sovereignty and self-determination. The military should begin a process of remediating and returning ancestral lands and waters to repair harm. This includes adherence to the principles of free, prior, and informed consent for any decisions and actions that impact our communities. We call on governments and the military to clean up toxins in our drinking water aquifers, lands, and oceans; to regulate and stop industries that pollute and destroy; and to divest from false solutions like fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and testing or experiments that harm all living things. We call on stronger accountability measures to hold international governments responsible for past, present, and future environmental degradation and for those most impacted by pollution and climate change to be centered in decision-making processes.
We demand access to clean, pollution-free, affordable renewable energy that is community-owned and governed such as solar and wind power. We reject the false solutions that entrench our dependence on fossil fuels and the military. Energy and food sovereignty must be coupled with community-led, just recovery practices that restore and strengthen our communities after climate disasters. This means access to more funding and direct investments for communities to rebuild our own systems that are decentralized and can provide a means for economic independence and sustainability for future generations to prosper.
We call for access to fair and just climate financing to ensure our communities can mitigate, prepare for, adapt to, and recover from climate-induced disasters and rebuild in a regenerative manner. These resources should strengthen local networks that have been proven to provide fast, on-the-ground aid and help us move away from a reliance on international disaster recovery aid.
We call for resources to develop our own indigenous education system that prioritizes our ancestral knowledge, worldviews, and priorities and centers Traditional Ecological Knowledge as well as place-based, hands-on, multi-generational learning. Our communities will be stronger when we build our power through organizing and advocacy that directly engages our peoples. We can leverage the power of shared storytelling, digital media, and arts and culture to bridge our visions and struggles for climate justice, decolonization, and peace.
The Mariana Islands and sister nations and territories across the Pacific demand a seat at the table and a right to have our voices heard and heeded in all decision-making that impacts our homelands. This includes access to international governing authorities such as the United Nations (INC) and national conversations governing access to climate financing for mitigation, adaptation, and reparations. We call for solidarity across the Mariånas, Micronesia, the Pacific region, and around the world. We call for global alliances that center climate justice, peace, and self-determination for marginalized, Black, People of Color, and Indigenous peoples everywhere.
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The following representatives gathered at the Making Waves: Peace and Climate Justice Summit on October 20th, 2023, and hereby ratify this declaration:
