I am a Ph.D. candidate with The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago\/Te Ao O Rongomaraeroa in Dunedin, on the South Island of Aotearoa\/ New Zealand. I am writing from Aotearoa to tell the people of the Marianas that they are not alone in the struggle to protect our sacred planet. You have friends and supporters beyond Oceania that stand in solidarity with you in opposition to the proposed military live-fire training on Pagan and Tinian.<\/p>\n
I grew up on the other side of Oceania in California, and although I was not raised in the Marianas, my mother lives there and I have been visiting every summer for several years. Over the past year, I have become increasingly involved with the nonviolent and artistic resistance occurring in the Marianas and throughout Oceania in relation to the American foreign policy Asia-Pacific Pivot and Trans Pacific Partnership. I have been in contact with Mo\u00f1eka De Oro, using her powerful statement from the CNMI Joint Military Training Draft EIS\/OEIS public meeting at Tinian Junior Senior High School in my methodology chapter and her poetry in a poster I presented. I contacted Arley Long regarding the online petition and asked ways in which she would prefer for me to publicize it and share. Most recently, I joined and contacted Alternative Zero Coalition. I established direct communication with Cinta M. Kaipat and asked if there was particular message that I should include in my research and presentations. Cinta asked me to please continue \u201craising awareness of our strong desire to stop the military’s destructive plans to bomb Pagan and Tinian.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a combination of scholarship and activism, I worked to raise awareness of the further colonisation and continual militarization of the Marianas through several methods and at varying venues across Oceania.<\/p>\n
In March, I spoke on Mutiny Radio, in collaboration with KPFA, broadcasted from the Mission District in San Francisco and available online. I discussed the proposed buildup of the Marianas and other Oceania activism on \u201cWomen\u2019s Magazine with Global Val,\u201d an hourlong radio program that presents and discusses women\u2019s lives and issues globally and locally from \u201ca radical, multiracial, feminist, mujerist, womanist perspective.\u201d (http:\/\/podcasts.pcrcollective.org\/WomensMagazine\/WomensMagazine-20150227.mp3).<\/p>\n
In April, I gave an artistic presentation on the Community and Cultural Development: Pacific Projects Panel at the Contemporary Pacific Arts Symposium. The transnational event held at Footscray Community Art Centre, on the banks of the Maribyrnong River on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people, Kulin nation in Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>\n
Two week later, I presented research at the National Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies\u2019 Research Seminar Series: Nonviolent Visual Resistance on Gu\u00e5han and in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI): Photography as a form of nonviolent resistance to contemporary colonialism & everyday militarization. In May, I presented the visual poster titled: Tip of the Spear also at Te Ao O Rongomaraeroa in Aotearoa. Following the presentation, at least 10 people from Aotearoa signed the online petition. I also shared the link with the Association for Anthropology in Oceania (ASAONET) email list serve and War Resisters’ International tweeted it on their official twitter account. Here is a direct link: www.tinyurl.com\/StopIslandBombing.<\/p>\n
In addition to speaking and presenting about the continual militarization of the Marianas, other nonviolent resistance organizations and groups have been showing solidarity through social media. Facebook organization page, \u2018Alternative Zero Coalition\u2019 (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlternativeZeroMarianas?fref=ts) and Facebook community page \u2018Our Islands are Sacred\u2019 (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ourislandsaresacred?fref=ts) are at the forefront of providing logistic information, status updates, and video commentary regarding the Department of Defense\u2019s proposal. Facebook public groups, \u2018We Are Gu\u00e5han Public Forum\u2019 (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/201035718843\/) and \u2018Manhita Marianas- Marianas Together\u2019 (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/471177866379761\/) create space for dialogue and brainstorming. The network of organizations \u2018DMZ-Hawai\u2019i\/ Aloha \u2018Aina\u2019 (http:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=11107), and the Facebook community \u2018I Oppose the Expansion of US Bases in Okinawa\u2019 (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/closethebase?fref=ts), also shared stories of protecting the Marianas and opposing U.S. military Asia Pacific-Pivot. Other Facebook groups that share the online petition and continue to collaborate include Pacific History Association, Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific, Peace Movement Aotearoa, and the Pacific Youth Council.<\/p>\n
Stella Magazine (http:\/\/www.stellamag.com), a \u201cthinking women\u2019s magazine based in Papua New Guinea,\u201d will feature regular stories from the Marianas beginning this August to spread awareness to Pasifika communities.<\/p>\n
Although I am based on the South Island of Aotearoa, I am also a research associate with the University of Guam\/ Unibetsed\u00e5t Gu\u00e5han Micronesia Area Research Center. I am returning to the Marianas in the first week of June to highlight the activities relating to nonviolent and artistic resistance visually. I manage the Facebook Page: \u2018Oceania Resistance\u2019 (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Oceania-Resistance\/883965481628059?ref=hl) as an online visual platform that shares my activism and research, offers news and articles, photographs and films, features events, highlights youth organizations, and showcases artistic activism in Oceania.<\/p>\n
I am hoping to show the tremendous momentum that is growing within the CNMI and beyond. Oceania is intensifying; from the protectors on top of Mauna Kea in Hawai\u2019i, to the \u2018kayakivists\u2019 in harbour of Seattle, to the elders in the streets of Okinawa, the teachers in the school hall of Tinian, environmentalists in Alaska, lawyers in the Marshall Islands and the Pacific Warriors from across the region, international solidarity and activism is directly challenging militarization and exploitation.<\/p>\n
I aim to contribute to the resistance and offer my solidarity and support to stand up for sacred lands. If you have any questions, comments, input or suggestions, I can be reached at Sylvia.Frain@postgrad.otago.ac.nz.<\/p>\n
Sylvia Frain<\/strong> I am a Ph.D. candidate with The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4297,200,67,4909],"class_list":["post-202831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-alternative-zero-coalition","tag-military","tag-people","tag-stella-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAotearoa, New Zealand<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"