Project update: One Ocean Week

In this project update blog post, read about OceanStates’ participation in the One Ocean Week with partners from the University of the South Pacific who visited us in Bergen last month. Written by Håkon Larsen Last month, the OceanStates project was fortunate to host a diverse delegation of students and staff from the University of Read More …

Atoll Ways of Being with the Ocean

A perspective from low laying atolls brings climate discourses and practical realities together. Tokelau experiences with political intervensions employed by overseas agents range historically from instruments of demographic control to more recent measures related to transport and access to revenue from the EEZ. Tensions between different ways of being with the ocean are increasingly apparent. Read More …

Ocean Talanoa

In July 2022 the OceanStates project had the privilege of bringing 28 students from the University of the South Pacific on board the tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl of Bergen, for a three-week voyage in Fiji waters. In this blogpost, you can read about how students from across the world engaged in exercises of knowledge sharing through the oceanic practice of ‘talanoa’ on this voyage together. Read More …

Big Ocean States: Reclaiming Sovereignty through Maritime Borders

In this blogpost, Milla Vaha provides an analysis of state sovereignty and maritime borders with a focus on the large ocean states of the Pacific, that are “powerfully exercising their right to self-determination” through a reinterpretation of international law and statehood in the age of climate change and sea-level rise. Read More …

Water, Oceans and Climate Change: Legal challenges, local perspectives and important examples to learn from

Dr Joanna Siekiera was recently invited to speak at a Special Lecture on Climate Change and its Impact on Small Island Developing States: The Example of the Pacific at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) by Professor David Attard, Director of the IMO International Maritime Law Institute. Here is what she had to say.     Read More …

Restorying Ma’ohi Nui with Island Lives, Ocean States

Vehia Wheeler introduces the Ma’ohi Nui project, a collaboration with the Island Lives, Ocean States project aiming to uplift voices, knowledge and perspectives on the ocean among indigenous populations in Mā‘ohi Nui (French Polynesia). Vehia is co-founder of Sustainable Oceania Solutions and was elected Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific Leader for Tahiti in 2020. The OceanStates project Read More …