MANAVA for Climate Resilience - website is LIVE!
MANAVA logo and artwork by Kahurangi Te Aroha Ngata
We have recently launched our website! This website is a space to hold our Pacific stories and share resources to prepare Pacific communites for the impacts of climate change, including major weather events.
“Everybody is prepared, has a plan for their own community. The MANAVA is an opportunity for us to speak into that and to share knowledge, and our ancestral knowledge that sits in that space. How do we support each other to have a plan, that’s our main thing, we are trying to prepare together. ”
MANAVA for Climate Resilience or MANAVA was formed in August 2023, informed by generations of tangata whenua and tagata moana. We believe our mahi within MANAVA is an attempt to contribute to a long legacy of caring for moana, whenua, and whānau. There are many meanings for the kupu manava in all our Pacific languages, but our central whakatauki has come from Tonga, and while English does not have equivalent languaging, a gifted translation from our members is listed below:
“Pikipiki hama kae vaevae manava. Bind our outriggers together so that we may share life”
Our MANAVA members come from all over the Pacific, including here in Aotearoa. We acknowledge that there are many indigenous names for this whenua. Our MANAVA whānau could not meet without the whenua we stand on. We acknowledge both recognised and unrecognised mana whenua of Tāmaki Mākaurau. Mana moana mo mana whenua. Toitū te Tiriti.
Knowing we all whakapapa to the Pacific, we also acknowledge our whānau from lower lying islands, like Tuvalu and Kiribati. Our Tuvalu whānau have been a large part of our MANAVA journey from the very beginning. We acknowledge the larger risk their motu face and we hope to keep them and our disabled whānau in mind as we prepare ourselves for climate change.
The Auckland Council funding has allowed us to collaborate with other Pacific creators to create a website, videos, and ‘Manava’ graphics and artwork. This project is funded as part of Auckland’s storm response.
MANAVA logo and artwork by Kahurangi Te Aroha Ngata.
Website design by Tyrone Tangata-Makiri.
Video production by Niko Meredith and Benji Timu.
Learn and connect with us: