15 years ago, when I lived in the Marshall Islands, global warming was just something that scientists talked about. I did, however, notice that parts of the reef were bleaching. I took note of the king tides and the regular flooding in the low-lying atolls in this country, and I worried. When I lived in the Marshall Islands, I did not yet know Selina Leem but I was in acquaintance with her middle school teacher. Selina would go on to attend an international high school focused on climate advocacy. Her teacher put me in touch with her when I was looking for writers interested in creating stories, essays, and poems in Marshallese. She wrote several beautiful poems in Marshallese, she recorded audio for curriculum I was developing, she transcribed some oral histories for me, and she helped me as I advanced in my personal language study of Marshallese. She signed all her emails with “a small island girl with big dreams.” This is how I know Selina.
At a crucial moment in the conversation around climate change, the Marshall Islands persuaded 60 other countries to join together in a High Ambition Coalition. to advance the most progressive proposals for climate adaptation. Tony deBrum, Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands, called any agreement allowing more than 1.5 degrees of global warming a death sentence. Together with other small countries, they created enough momentum and energy that they convinced the United States, India, and Brazil. In 2015, 195 countries agreed to progressive climate action at the COP21 Summit in Paris. The COP-26 (the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference) in November 2021 was the first real look at whether the Paris Agreement is working. Minister Tony DeBrum asked Selina to give the closing remarks for the Marshall Islands. She has continued to advocate for climate adaptation. I spoke with Selina earlier this year about her participation in a TED Countdown event leading up to the COP26 Summit in Glasgow. Taking up the cause where Minister Tony DeBrum left us.
BaoBao Chen (Taiwan) & Tim Cole (Australia) moved by her words at the COP15 asked her to be a part of Small Island Big Song, a multimedia collaboration of musicians and vocalists across the Indo-Pacific including Madagascar, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan. These islanders, singing in the languages and musical sensibilities of their home islands, share an ancient seafaring ancestry and deep love for the ocean that connects us all. They perform several songs, singing in their own languages.
In Listwar Zanset (History of our ancestors), Emlynn sings about sings about the enslavement and rebellion of her ancestors in Mauritus. Putad responded to Emlyn’s song by adding a chorus: “Although we don’t have the history of slavery but we were banned from speaking our Amis language, many of our traditional songs were lost, and our custodial land stolen from us.” At the end Selina says: Im ikile ad ri-etto ro, aelōn̄ kein ad, lamoran. Their people displaced, their lands taken, my lands drowning.” During the intermission BaoBao Chen introduces Selina Leem and they discuss the inspiration for the tour:
Selina’s moving statements at the 2015 UN Climate Change Converse in Paris. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tony DeBrum, whose High Ambition Coalition advocated for significant climate change goals, turned over the microphone to then 18 year old Selina Leem for their closing statements. In the second half of the performance, Selina, now 24 years old, reads her closing statement from a handheld journal on stage. She also recounts a conversation she had with Minister DeBrum. He said 1.5 would not save their islands and she asked then why are they doing this. He said that for many nations 1.5 was a lifeline. If they save their islands, then they save the world.
Marine scientists agree that a global increase of 1.5 C will result in a loss of 90% of the ocean’s coral reefs. These reefs support 25% of all marine life, the loss of which will be an existential event for the world’s ocean. (At current rates, this will occur in 2035.) As the video transitions from a lively reef to a bleached and empty skeleton, the musician sing this lament. They embody and bring together the mourning traditions of their cultures.
As they bear witness to the collapse of the ecosystem around them, they sing with fervent hope that we change the dominant global culture that is failing us and take action. There is an old word in Marshallese, aejemjem, that means persuasive and powerful and speaking. The example sentence in the dictionary says: Eajemjem an irooj en naan (The chief carries power in his words). But, I say this. Eajemjem an lio naan. Eajemjem aer al. (The girl carries power in her words. Their song is persuasive.)
