Now the weather is not speaking to us as it used to

As part of the Community Resilience Case Studies project, undertaken for the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership, researchers from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney travelled to Vanuatu over recent weeks.

The research is exploring community resilience to climate change and disasters in Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Kiribati. In each country, we are focusing on one specific DFAT investment that aims to support community resilience in some way. We spent time with a selected community in each country, learning about the ways in which the DFAT investment is supporting the community’s resilience to climate change and disasters.

ISF researchers Anna Gero and Tamara Megaw travelled to Vanuatu during the week of 18th November 2019 for the first year of data collection. We spent the first two days in Port Vila meeting various people connected to the Vanuatu Skills Partnership (the specific DFAT investment of focus for Vanuatu). Meetings with DFAT and the Vanuatu Skills Partnership were followed by those with key government partners – Department of Industries and Department of Forestry. We then flew with our national consultant to Malampa Province to visit Wala community, made up of about 200 people on Wala island and others on the adjacent mainland.

We spent two days meeting with the Council of Chiefs, the Chair of the Disability Association, and women handicraft producers and trainers, including those living with disabilities, to learn about the contribution the Vanuatu Skills Partnership – and specifically the Skills for Handicraft stream - was having on their community.

Community members shared their observations of the changing nature of rainfall, changing patterns of flowering plants and fruit trees, availability of traditional foods and changes to wind patterns and marine life with the research team. We also heard about the ways in which the Skills for Handicraft program was supporting the community to become more resilient to these changing patterns.

“Before we experienced wind patterns that showed the planting season… But now the weather is not speaking to us as it used to.” Female community member, Wala Island

We finished the week with a community workshop, followed by a traditional ‘lap lap’ lunch which the Wala community prepared and shared with us. The research team will return to Wala next year to continue the research and deepen their understanding of what resilience means to the people in Wala Island.