Oceanic Refractions
«Oceanic Refractions» is an immersive installation featuring testimonies of Fijian, i-Kiribati and Papua New Guinean elders on kinship, self-determination and care in the face of global ecocide. Along with reflections from these teachers, artists, fisherpeople, grandparents and chiefs, we hear field recordings of the reefs of Fiji, the oceans and mangroves of Kiribati, and the shorelines of Papua New Guinea’s Duke of York Islands. Through hyper-detailed soundscape compositions, combined with immersive videography, «Oceanic Refractions» creates an unforgettable sensorial experience. Moved by listening and silence, the work offers audiences rare insights into the environmental relations sustaining Oceania’s many worlds.
The climate crisis, an expression of colonial-capitalist violence, is intensifying rapidly. Oceanic frontline communities have long been navigating changing ecosystems. It is through cultures of reciprocity between people, lands and waters, that these changes are being experienced. By listening to environments we recognise our interdependence with the earth; we need one another to survive. Across Oceania, interdependence enables self-determination, collaboration and care in the face of incommensurable loss and grief.
The result of several years of research and talanoa (dialogue) with Indigenous leaders, scholars, artists and advocates from Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands and Nauru, the work is led and produced by artists AM Kanngieser (Australia) and Mere Nailatikau (Fiji) who combine their expertise in climate research, education and arts (Kanngieser) and Pacific communication and international relations (Nailatikau), with sound designer KMRU (Kenya/Germany) and filmmakers Laisiasa Dave Lavaki (Fiji) and Tumeli Tuqota (Fiji).
