Oceania has always had at its core traditions in creative expression that empowered us in our relationship with the environment. The imagined past and the lived present was presented in song, dance, drama and stories that always incorporated relationships between the sea, land and sky. Today, new challenges are upon us because we have not treated the sea, land and sky in the spirit of our ancestors. And Oceania is now caught in the maelstrom of climate change much of which is global but affects the local. More than it does the rest of the world.

The conference will bring together writers, artists and environmental activists in providing an alternative culture of determination of responses to issues like climate change. Globally there has been a trend towards incorporating traditional sustainable values on the environment, in modern awareness and activism on the subject. The Pacific has not previously held a conference of this nature, although many agencies, both local and global incorporate traditional values and knowledge into their programs.

Revisiting themes on the idea of the Pacific as Oceania and the central place of the environment and how it harmonized with people in oral literature and traditions, the conference will highlight current works of the writer and artist as activists for the islands. Of particular importance will be a synergy of creative spirits with scientific and environmental knowledge that will better serve the Pacific as face coming climate challenges.

The conference will invite writers, artists, media specialists, scientists and conservationists both from the academic and professional sectors, as well as areas of traditional knowledge, from the Pacific, and globally. The corporate sector, especially companies that espouse environmental values into their profiles, for example, Fiji Water and Pure Fiji, will be invited to come on board.

The conference will be a festival of formal academic papers, showcasing of literary and creative arts, and workshops on traditional knowledge and methods of sustainable environment care. This will provide a foundational synthesizing of creative expression from the Pacific especially in light of the dangers posed by global warming. The conference will provide an opportunity for creative expression in the Pacific to be given context within the current state of the Pacific and its environment. This is timely given the upheavals in the Pacific as nation states face manifold challenges of the environment, globalization and their own growing pains towards nationhood.