Call to Board the VAKA - Otago Daily Times
Kelly Moneymaker is in Madrid with her film about Tokelau's climate change efforts. "It’s time to get in the vaka and help with the paddling", Kelly Moneymaker says.
The message is for anyone with ears to hear, but the documentary maker is already broadcasting it to those in the best position to respond.
Moneymaker is in Madrid for the COP25 talks, the latest United Nations-sponsored climate change conference, where she is unveiling her documentary Vaka, about the remarkable efforts of the people of Tokelau to meet the challenge.
Moneymaker spent three weeks in the island nation earlier this year with a documentary crew from her Massey University film-making course and came away with a story about how a combination of indigenous knowledge and modern technology is mapping a way forward.
"What we found is the Tokelauan people, they have this long-term data from their ancestors because they pass down information from one generation to another and they know what their environment looked like before humans started to impact it.
"Also, even though they have all this long-term knowledge, they are embracing modern science, data collection and assistance from New Zealand to help them support their cultural wisdom. "The combination of the two, I feel, could be the key to solving climate change issues."
Tokelau’s unique "inati" system, in which the atolls’ resources are shared equally, provides the platform for the approach.
"It is always about sharing and taking care of each other."
Moneymaker, of Samoan and Inuit heritage, says the inclusive culture allows them to access knowledge from whoever holds it, whether that’s from different groups within their own community or the wider world. They come together, talk, share and decide what to do. "We call them solutionists."So far, that’s included a rapid transformation of their energy system, away from diesel to solar and wind, shrinking their already minuscule greenhouse gas footprint, building seawalls and re-nourishing their reefs, building raised garden beds and getting about in electric golf carts. "They are not giving up, they are giving it everything they have." The associated message is that if they can do it, everyone can do it.
"What we are asking is for people to watch this [documentary] and learn from their resilience and their problem-solving skills and get in the vaka."
