Nia Tero Annual Report 2023 ENGLISH Single pages - Flipbook - Page 35
Solomon Islands
Papua New Guinea
The Islands Knowledge Institute (IKI),
a core Nia Tero partner, facilitated an
agreement among Solomon Islands
government agencies to refrain from
resource exploitation in the Tina River
catchment, showcasing Indigenous
sovereignty and territorial protection.
Additionally, IKI supported the initiation of a
postgraduate program in Indigenous Islands
Knowledges and Futures at Solomon Islands
National University (SINU), empowering
future leaders in Indigenous guardianship
and knowledge systems.
In Papua New Guinea, Project Sepik has
been collaborating with allied organization,
Jubilee Australia Research Centre, to ensure
that the Indigenous Peoples of the Sepik
Basin properly exercise their right to free,
prior and informed consent (FPIC) regarding
the proposed development of a gold and
copper mine adjacent to an upper tributary
of the Sepik. Sepik River peoples have been
engaged in a years-long battle to defend
the health of the river – which hundreds
of thousands of people along the river
depend on and to which they hold deep
spiritual and cultural connections.
Nia Tero’s support for the Mala I Tolo
initiative and Mai Maasina Green Belt
partners in Malaita is transforming education
by integrating traditional language and
knowledge into the curriculum, fostering
Indigenous stewardship and leadership
among students.
Vanuatu
In 2023, Nia Tero began supporting an
innovative approach to forest conservation,
piloted by the Vanuatu Department of
Forests in partnership with the Vanuatu
Cultural Centre and the New York Botanical
Garden, that builds on hundreds of years
of Indigenous values-based forest management practice to provide answers to
contemporary challenges of deforestation.
Palau
In 2023, the ocean and reef protection
efforts of our North Pacific partner,
One Reef, featured completion of a
Traditional Stewardship curriculum, as well
as engaging youth in building a Diangel
(traditional canoe house) and a 23’ kaeb
(traditional canoe). The Diangel now serves
as an alternative learning space, fostering
education, knowledge exchange,
and biocultural revitalization.
In the New Guinea Islands, Nia Tero has
contributed to the reinvigoration of ocean
canoe culture among the Titan people
of Manus – replanting canoe trees, building
back canoe houses, sailing-canoe racing,
and plans to re-energize customary
inter-island trade using sailing canoes
– reconnecting people with their
ocean homelands and nurturing
ocean guardianship.
Cook Islands
Nia Tero partner, Kōrero O Te `Ōrau,
continued to lead its work reconnecting
Indigenous youth with the land and sea
and thus cultivating the next generation
of guardians. By the end of 2023, their
Operation Taramea program, which takes
youth out onto the reef to harvest invasive
Taramea (Crown of Thorns starfish), had
removed over 8300 of these dangerous
reef-destroying invasives. The youth then
used the Taramea as fertilizer as they
learned to plant and nurture traditional
food gardens.
Thriving Peoples. Thriving Places.
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