Dealing with Climate Change from the Margins: Creative Expressions of Indigenous Values and Practices from the Sundarban and the Pacific

Abstract

The Sundarban mangrove area in the lower Bengal Delta and the Pacific Islands are two regions heavily affected by climate change. From a geopolitical perspective, the escalating trend of climate-induced migration and forced relocation of the residents of these regions due to rising sea levels, deforestation, and aggressive industrial expansion have rendered the situation even more complex. Creative performances based on oral traditions and Indigenous values, and traditional knowledge and practices from these places, have addressed the causes and dire consequences of anthropogenic climate change for both human and nonhuman species. While such works from the Pacific Islands are commonly integrated within a framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), those from Bengal are yet to find an organized approach. This chapter discusses three performances by Indigenous and native writers from these two regions (Dokkhina Sundari, Moana: The Rising of the Sea, and Marama), acknowledging essential differences in perceiving and reacting to issues related to climate change. It examines how these performances employ oral traditions to situate the residents in relation to the land and nonhuman agency, while countering the climate crisis and its causes. Finally, this chapter intends to understand how cultural productions from distant regions may complement each other and mobilize planetary efforts to form a new kind of shared cosmopolitics by drawing on traditional knowledge and distributing agency to all.