Advancing Indigenous Climate Mobilities Governance: Vaitupu–Kioa’s Cross-Border Fenua

Image: Kioa Island / Supplied by the authors

This policy brief presents a case study of Indigenous climate mobility governance, through which communities exercise authority to make decisions on how their land or other resources might or might not become available to support groups wanting to move. It presents a summary of, and recommendations from, recent research on the Vaitupu–Kioa international fenua, a unique Indigenous community that spans an international border between Fiji and Tuvalu (Kitara et al. 2026). It considers Kioa as a potential site of climate refuge for other fenua communities in Tuvalu, emphasizing that such an opportunity could only be achieved through the Indigenous authority of Vaitupu–Kioa, and likely also the Indigenous governance system of the Cakaudrove Fijian community, whose territory surrounds Kioa. Specific recommendations are provided for the governments of Tuvalu and Fiji and other international partners, in what is arguably their role as enablers of Indigenous climate mobilities. Our primary recommendation is for state-centric models of climate mobility to be re-examined for their tendency to preclude self-determined, culturally grounded governance of relocation among Indigenous communities, including across international borders.