The power of butchers' paper
Butchers’ paper is not usually considered an official document, yet on 11 September 2006 a delegation led by the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education took four large sheets of butchers’ paper to the Australian Parliament. The butchers’ paper contained messages from community leaders from the Pacific nation of Kiribati seeking to inform Australian parliamentarians and the Australian community to the effects that climate change is having on their islands.
The butchers’ paper messages have since been laminated for posterity and inspired the formation of the Pacific Calling Partnership – a consortium of 200 organisations and individuals with the unifying goal of seeking climate justice for low lying Pacific nations. Since its inauguration in 2006, the Partnership has conducted numerous forums exploring human rights dilemmas posed by climate change, led a delegation of youth from Kiribati, the Torres Strait, mainland Australia and the Carteret Islands to attend the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference in Bali; conducted youth leadership programs and immersions tours between Australia and Kiribati; and become a driving force in developing creative educational resources including a musical cd to raise awareness of climate justice issues for our Pacific neighbours. President Anote Tong and his eight-person delegation met with members of the Partnership when he visited Australia in July 2008.
Fading somewhat into the background however are the humble beginnings of the Partnership and these transformative sheets of butchers’ paper. The historical messages on the butchers’ paper were in fact an outcome of an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) assignment in Kiribati.
Kiribati is a small atoll nation of 95,000 people whose existence is inextricably tied to the sea. With a total landmass of 33 tiny islands sprinkled across 3.4 million square kilometres of the Pacific ocean, the people of Kiribati have developed a unique and patient understanding with the indiscriminate nature of their ocean – an ocean that has provided them a plentiful source of nourishment for generations, yet at the same time taken so many loved ones away. However, this patient understanding is steadily being eroded as human-induced climate change alters the natural dynamics of their oceanic existence.
A sense of international responsibility for the plight of nations such as Kiribati that are most vulnerable and less able to cope with the impacts of climate change, was the primary motivation for Australian Youth Ambassador, Emma Farrell, to travel to the remote outer islands of Kiribati. With the support of her Australian Partner Organisation, the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education, Emma spent 12 months working with up to 400 teachers and community leaders to help set up environmental education programs in their schools and communities.
Emma primarily worked with an association of Catholic teachers and religious leaders who wanted her to impart practical skills in sustainability and strengthen their knowledge of the effects and strategies to address climate change. Emma sought first of all to get to know the people and to understand and live within the culture and she quickly developed the ability to converse with communities in the Kiribati language. The workshops she conducted, mostly in rural areas across several of the Kiribati islands were based on permaculture principles and in collaboration with local farmers and the Kiribati Department of Agriculture. Participants learned about strategies to ensure clean water, create healthy productive soils, grow food sustainability and protect marine and coastal environments.
Out of the 30 workshops conducted over the course of a year, the final workshop was of particular significance. In March 2006, thirty-four local village leaders from the rural island of North Tarawa turned up on a public holiday (and with only a days notice) to participate in a workshop on climate change and the environment. During the workshop, participants debated issues raised in a locally made film by Linda Uan of Nei Tabera Ni Kai Video Unit, called Kiribati and Global Warming – A Message for the World. After feeling depressed and then inspired by the messages in the film, participants composed messages on large sheets of butchers’ paper and requested that the Edmund Rice Centre deliver them to the Australian Government on their behalf.
This was a transformative moment that has led to a sustained movement on climate justice and forged new partnerships between communities in Australia and Kiribati. When Emma started her AYAD assignment she wrestled with the challenge of how to sustain the outcomes of these workshops after she finished her 12 month AYAD assignment. It did not seem like adequate time to bring about sustainable change, especially for communities who have limited capacity to have their voices heard in the international arena. The answer did not involve large amounts of funding or technical expertise but rather time, enthusiasm and carefully crafted strategic planning to develop long-lasting networks and connect community activists with shared goals across the region. The change was derived from empowering individuals to bring their diverse talents to the table. The AYAD Program played a part in catalysing that change and shares in the credit of the fantastic work being carried out by the Pacific Calling Partnership.
Since it began one of the key goals of the Pacific Calling Partnership has been the fostering of Pacific links and developing knowledge about climate change, advocacy and leadership skills among Pacific Islanders living in Australia. This goal took a boost with the employment in mid 2008 of Maria Tiimon who moved to Australia from Kiribati in 2007. Maria has presented the human face of climate change at numerous events since she began work, culminating in her address to thousands of assembled people at the Walk against Warming in Martin Place in Sydney in November 2008.
Reaching out to all Pacific Island communities, the Partnership is mentoring interested individuals so they can become more informed about climate change and develop skills in presenting the issues facing their countries to the Australian community. Story and traditional dance make this community education program relevant and dynamic.
The year 2009, a crucial year for making decisions about climate change, will see the Partnership taking a determinedly international focus with plans for sending another skills sharing delegation to Kiribati to take part in workshops with people from partner organisations there. The workshops will prepare for another joint Pacific Calling Partnership delegation to go to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change in Copenhagen in December.