People of the Sea

For a lot of people, things like the ocean or a mountain are seen as impersonal parts of nature. How is that natural for you?

It’s hard for me to hear that people don't have a familial feeling with their surroundings. They don't see the rocks, or the trees, or the animals as part of their own family and that's hard for me to hear. Here in these islands, we grow up with that understanding. There's no teaching of it. It's kind of an innate understanding to see the rocks and the trees and the animals as family members. And I think it has helped us to exist in a place which for so long was isolated, and we're able to be very productive here by working together with not just humans but with the animals in the ocean or in the mountains, the trees and the rocks. We just all worked together to exist in this space.

"And if more people understood how we're affecting the things around us, the people and the place, I think we might be a lot better off."

And I think if more people understood how we're affecting the things around us, the people and the place, I think we might be a lot better off, you know?

Right now everyone is so anthropocentric and just worrying about what's happening to themselves. But if we just took a little bit of time to understand how we're affecting our surroundings I think we could really improve a lot of the negativity that exists first just within our immediate space, then within our family, then within our small community. And I think that will exponentially extrapolate into really being able to have impact on a large scale, on a global level.

But as far as just understanding the individual, how am I affecting everything next to me? And that comes down to the bugs, and the grass, and the corals, and the light salt that sprays on the top of the waves. There's a whole other type of wind that happens when the wave breaks. And it kinda gets in your eyes, and to me it's kind of irritating but that's a whole different kind of wind that if you're not out there, understanding about that relationship, it's very difficult to know. That could be detrimental to your own well being. You go over the wave, it makes the wind go in your eyes and you can't see, you get pounded by the next one. I feel it's important for people to understand how they're affecting everything around them. And for me personally, I take that on a molecular level.