Witnessing an island’s birth is a rare opportunity, an epochal transformation caught within the brief flicker of human experience. When Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai, or HTHH, emerged from the ocean in 2014, news of its surfacing circulated through reports of a ‘baby island’ in the Tonga archipelago, fresh evi-
dence of the power of the Pacific Rim of Fire. Reading those accounts, I thought of anthropologist Mary Patterson’s observation that volcanoes focus attention outward into the world, owing to the fragility of lives lived on moving ground. Yet this uninhabited island evoked something more than mere anticipation of its future entanglements with human concerns. Its arrival was a true event – awe-inspiring, infinitely unfolding, unpredictable. I teach anthropology and marine policy at Sea Education Association, an ocean-focused study abroad school based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Our class visit to HTHH in 2018 deepened my fascination with volcanic islands – the way they challenge our terrestrial biases; their ability to hold endurance and ephemerality in beautiful tension. True to character, HTHH abruptly returned to the sea in 2022.
Pristine Grounds, Plastic Histories: Narrating Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai
Jeff Wescott
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- Theme
- Tag
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- islands,
- The Pacific Islands,
- ocean plastics,
- ocean-climate nexus,
- pollution
- Target Group
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- Students,
- Researchers,
- community members
- Language
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- English
- Region
In this chapter, Jeff Wescott writes about the 'baby island' which emerged in the 2014 in Tonga, revealing that even the newest landmasses on the Earth of our time are polluted by plastics.