Not just a sinking island: Tuvaluan of Irish ancestry fights climate change and despair

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Fihaki was among them, delighted to visit the birthplace of her ancestor, Jack O’Brien, who, like many Irish before him, set sail for Australia four generations ago but, unlike…

Whenever Eliala Fihaki goes through passport control at an airport, she can tell by the look on the immigration officer’s face they aren’t immediately familiar with what’s stated as her place of birth.

Tuvalu, it says. “The sinking island,” she’ll prompt them. “Then they know.”

She doesn’t like to reference her home place like that, feeling it reduces Tuvalu to a lost cause.

“It’s a very negative association. I just wish people knew that we’re not only coming here to ask for money and beg for help.

“There’s more to us than that – our identity, culture, language. We are not defined by despair.”

The Climate Gathering movement brought together environmentalists, climate campaigners, community activists and people from religious, political and artistic backgrounds to discuss how to support climate action.

Fihaki was among them, delighted to visit the birthplace of her ancestor, Jack O’Brien, who, like many Irish before him, set sail for Australia four generations ago but, unlike many others kept going to Tuvalu.

While those gathered on Inishbofin would marvel at how far she had travelled, Fihaki would insist Ireland and Tuvalu were closer than they realised.

“We are people of the ocean. It has never separated us from the world. It has connected us to it,” she said.

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