State of the Pacific 2024: Challenges of Cross-Border Displacement

The Department of Pacific Affairs’ biennial State of the Pacific (SOTP) conference will take place on 4 and 5 September 2024 at the Australian National University in Canberra.

A Pacific Research Program flagship event, the State of the Pacific conference brings together leading academics, policymakers, business leaders, civil society representatives and the media to present on, discuss and debate current issues of interest concerning the Pacific Islands region.

This panel, Challenges of Cross-Border Displacement, featuring International IDEA’s Programme Officer for Constitution-Building Processes, Anna Dziedzic, will discuss the political, legal, environmental and cultural challenges experienced by two unique communities in the Pacific: the Banabans/Rabi Islanders of Kiribati and Fiji, and the Gilbertese/i-Kiribati people of Solomon Islands. 

While their experiences differ, both groups were relocated due to resource degradation and dispossession wrought by colonisation, and both now have unique legal entitlements and struggles. Their experiences provide critical lessons for a climate-affected future, as well as for the experiences of the Kiribati/Gilbertese diaspora which is growing through labour mobility schemes.

Also appearing on the panel are:

• Katerina Teaiwa, Professor, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU

• Itinterunga Rae Bainteiti, Coordinator, Banaban Human Rights Defenders Network, Kiribati

• Rebecca Monson, Professor, College of Law, ANU

Attendance is by prior registration only.