HONOLULU — Since the Guamanian-Palauan artist Kaitlin Ngeremokt gave up her bedsheet Monday to make art in honor of New Caledonia, she has been sleeping on an empty mattress with just a thin blanket.
“I didn’t have money to buy a canvas; it was so expensive,” Ngeremokt said. “We each got a cheap, disposable bedsheet for free. This is more important, and I’m OK with what I have.”
While the New Caledonia hale at the Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture’s Festival Village remains empty due to the delegation’s absence caused by political unrest, delegates from all over Oceania have been gathering at the New Caledonia hale to show their support.
Ngeremokt began her artwork at the New Caledonia hale on Monday and approached each hale to gather contributions for her art, which will be presented as a surprise.
By Tuesday, she said she had received an overwhelming amount of support from all the delegations.
“I really want to create something to symbolize unity and solidarity for our brothers and sisters in Oceania who are suffering, not just in New Caledonia, but also in West Papua, back home in Guam and here in Hawai‘i as well.”
Ngeremokt said she was particularly moved by Fijian Chief Pita Tagicakirewa’s speech during Thursday’s opening ceremony and decided to center her work around Tagicakirewa’s quote, “Our identity and language are not negotiable.”
The artwork depicts a circle connected by four hands representing the north, south, east and west of Oceania. Blue lines separate the different regions of Oceania, but guide them all toward a single yellow star in the center, symbolizing the navigational star chart.
“I’m a mother, so being an activist is natural,” Ngeremokt said. “If you’re a mother, you don’t want people coming and poisoning your water, causing inflation and gentrification where you’re raising your children.”
As an activist, Ngeremokt faced backlash from “people who don’t care to fight against capitalism and the desecration of our land and poisoning of our water.”
“It’s been a real blessing,” she said. “It’s so nice to be here and to be surrounded by people who are in solidarity right now.”
Sue Pearson, a delegate artist from Norfolk Island, drew an endemic Norfolk Island pine tree, between the blue lines on behalf of her delegation, symbolizing their support for the solidarity of Oceania.
The Norfolk Island pine tree is the territory’s emblem, which is also featured on the flag.
“These pine trees are really tall, they grow really old and they’re really strong,” Pearson said. “I’m using it to symbolize strength and our deep-rooted connection to the ‘fenua,’ or ground.”
Pearson wants to support New Caledonia as their closest neighbor, about 600 miles away.
“Those of us that are living under colonial rule, we are small peoples against big powers,” Pearson said. “So it’s important for all of us to stand in support, always.”
Terisa Siagatonu, a delegate from American Samoa and poet, sat at the New Caledonia hale Tuesday to compose a literary piece expressing solidarity with the country.
She said that being surrounded at the New Caledonia hale by women from all over Oceania illustrates that caring about what’s happening there doesn’t require being from New Caledonia — “we are all family.”
“I personally felt called to stand in solidarity with New Caledonia,” Siagatonu said. “We recognize this moment as a reckoning for our Pacific people. What does it mean to participate in the largest Pacific art and cultural festival in the world, while one of our own island nations in Melanesia withdraws just three weeks prior due to legal and political turmoil, as well as civil unrest stemming from French colonialism on their islands?”
“What does it mean to contend with the fact that we’re gathering amidst an ongoing genocide in Palestine? What does it mean to contend with the ever-growing fight to free West Papua? And so, as Pacific people, the vastness of us has to contend and take into account all these layers that make us the complex, beautiful, rich and heritage people that we are.”
Siagatonu stated that she, along with other delegations, will continue to demonstrate their support and solidarity through art storytelling throughout the ceremony.
Siagatonu was accompanied by Millicent Barty from the Solomon Islands, an advocate for both climate change and the revitalization of traditional customs and heritage affected by colonization.
“Being physically here, we truly feel New Caledonia’s absence,” Barty said. “It’s hard to stand in solidarity since our islands are so far apart, but standing here together in this space, it’s our duty to fill this gap and stand in solidarity with our Kanaki brothers and sisters.”
Barty expressed disappointment in the governments across the Pacific region, particularly in Melanesia, for not speaking up on behalf of “those of us who feel incredibly heartbroken over what’s happening over there.”
“They should speak up and stand as allies,” she said. “That’s the essence of the Pacific spirit.”
