Anthropogenic Climate Change, Tourism, and Art Production in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

Abstract

As Marquesans in French Polynesia face a warming Pacific Ocean, coral decline, and an increased likelihood of cyclones and tsunamis (Gillie 1997; Sylvat and Wilkinson 2011; United Nations 2005), discourses and narratives related to anthropogenic climate change have rapidly become a part of contemporary social life on the islands, challenging and remolding Marquesans’ senses of identity. Moreover, the Marquesas Islands have become an increasingly popular tourist destination, which contributes to 80% of the local economy. The economic significance of tourism combined with the ecological changes have rapidly shifted Marquesans’ sense of self, particularly as demonstrated through indigenous material culture. While Marquesan “material culture” (Lévi-Strauss 1963) has been reclaimed and revalued by Marquesans and tourists alike, material production processes have tended to contribute to the destruction of the ecological environment and depletion of local resources. Simultaneously, anthropogenic climate change has resulted in reduced yields for locally-sourced raw materials integral to the continuation of these industries (Gornall et al. 2010; McMillan et al. 2014; Thaman and Clarke 1993). The tourist market is thus a complex and contradictory site at which local identity and material practices converge with the stark realities of global environmental and economic change. This research asks: how is the very nature of collective identity, in “traditional” societies or others, being challenged by swift ecological and climate change? How might models of tourism, economic viability, and agricultural exploitation need to be revised and reorganized in ways that take into account new kinds of identities and imaginaries, new forms of collective action, or the re-mobilization of “older” forms of collectivity and economic activity? In the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, I examine how Marquesans draw upon their history, sense of self, sense of culture, sense of stability, and sense of precocity to remake both who they are and/through the objects that reflect who they are.