Book Launch Celebrates Pacific Climate Scholarship in Suva, Fiji

A landmark scholarly event unfolded on the evening of 28 April 2026 at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Conference Hall, as some 200 distinguished guests gathered to celebrate the launch of Climate Change in Pasifika Relational Perspectives, a groundbreaking volume that was an outcome of a collaborative project between the Toda Peace Institute and the Pasifika Communities University (PCU). The event, co-hosted by the two institutions, marked a significant milestone in Pacific-centred climate research and brought together diplomats, academics, policymakers, and community leaders in a spirit of shared purpose.

The evening was graced by the Chief Guest, the Honourable Sitiveni Rabuka, Prime Minister of Fiji, whose presence underscored the deep political resonance of the book’s themes. The diplomatic community was also well represented, with the Japanese Ambassador to Fiji among the distinguished guests, reflecting the international significance of the publication. Copies of the book were formally presented to the Prime Minister, the Japanese Ambassador, and other senior guests as a gesture of the volume’s importance to regional and global climate conversations.

Edited by Upolu Lumā Vaai, Volker Boege, Carol Farbotko, John Campbell, and Tammy Tabe, the book brings together contributions from over twenty scholars across the Pacific and beyond. Also featured are poems by six writers from Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, whose work brings a personal and individual perspective to complement the research-focussed chapters. The volume centres Pasifika relational ontologies—the understanding that people, land, sea, and cosmos are deeply interconnected—as a lens through which to examine and respond to the climate crisis. It is a direct challenge to dominant Western framings of climate change and an affirmation that Indigenous Pacific epistemologies have a vital role to play in shaping global climate futures.

The project was initiated jointly by the Toda Peace Institute and Pasifika Communities University, reflecting a shared commitment to peacebuilding, environmental justice, and the amplification of Pacific voices in international discourse. Speakers at the launch praised the collaboration as a model for how research institutions can work alongside Pacific communities to produce scholarship that is both academically rigorous and grounded in lived experience.

Climate Change in Pasifika Relational Perspectives is now available through PCU Press.

 

_{Image: Prime Minister of Fiji, the Honourable Sitiveni Rabuka │Pasifika Communities University}