Indigenous knowledge and inclusive ocean governance: a case study from Vanuatu | One Ocean Hub

This session presented Netai en Namou Toc (Stories of Mother Ocean), a newly published illustrated children’s book produced by the Erromango Cultural Association in collaboration with One Ocean Hub’s Deep Emotional Engagement Programme (DEEP) Fund. The book harnesses the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Erromango, a southern island of Vanuatu, to record, preserve and promote indigenous knowledge, custom stories and oral histories relating to the ocean. As Pacific Island States mitigate unprecedented oceanic damage and loss, the session championed the importance of intergenerational traditional knowledge transmission to empower youth and bolster resilience. Bringing together representatives from academia, civil society and government, the session advocated community-based art practice as an inclusive research methodology that provides opportunity for equitable participation of grassroots organisations who are often excluded from international dialogue and debate about ocean policies. The pressing need to include diverse knowledge systems in strategies of adaptation is advocated, as is the role of intangible heritage to assert cultural rights to environmental ecosystems. Against a backdrop of sea level rise, ocean acidification and prospective deep-sea mining, the session advances arguments for the incorporation of Pacific knowledge in national, regional and international policies to ensure ocean sustainability and posterity.