Confronting Australian Apathy: Latai Taumoepeau and the Politics of Performance in Pacific Climate Stewardship

Abstract:Over the past two decades, foreign discourses of climate change have envisioned the demise of the tropical island as a tragic metaphor for the fate of the world. Oceanians have indeed borne the brunt of the age of climate change; however, not all have submitted to the colonial trope of passive victims on the frontline of global forces beyond their control. While political, legal, and cultural forms of resistance have been well documented in the scholarship of Oceania, there remains a largely unexplored field of academic inquiry concerning the role of Oceanian activist art-story. This article seeks to redress this shortfall by examining the central importance of Tongan artist Latai Taumoepeau’s body-centered performance art within the settler-colonial context of Australia. Given the historical failings of successive Australian governments to address climate change, since 2013 Taumoepeau has consistently used embodiment-driven art performance to confront the apathy of Australia’s leadership and settler public and to highlight the importance of Indigenous Pacific environmental stewardship and leadership in addressing these issues. Weaving talanoa-based interviews with critical analysis, I examine several of her artistic works, including i-Land X-isle (2012); Repatriate (2015); Ocean Island, Mine! (2015); War Dance of the Final Frontier (2018); Archipela_GO . . . . this is not a drill (2017); and hg57 (Human Generator 57) (2016–2020). These projects illuminate the power of diasporic Pacific arts not only to solidify an enduring regional identity vested in Oceania but also to engage the broader Australian public around the ongoing environmental concerns of Oceania.