The largest naval exercise in the world has been involving navies and naval assets from 29 nations since the previous month of June.
The US-led RIMPAC 2024 ( Exercise Rim of the Pacific ), the 29th such exercise to be held since 1971, claims to promote” a free and open Indo-Pacific”. But many of the Indigenous peoples of this region, which covers more than 50 % of the Earth’s surface, do n’t see it that way at all.
In June, Protecting Oceania, a group of Indigenous Pacific, economic, and social justice companies, released a speech, saying:
We stand together, in order to accomplish our sacred responsibility to get great ancestors, and strongly oppose the fortification of our islands and oceans … These exercises threaten our sovereignties and our communities, people and other-than-human everywhere, here in Hawaii, across Moananuiākea, and throughout the globe.
The global Cancel RIMPAC promotion in Hawaii contends that the training does not offer the security it claims. Instead, it contributes to stereotyped violence, economic damage, and colonialism in the area.
Since their creation more than 50 years ago, the Royal Navy has participated in the tasks. RIMPAC is a topic that is rarely discussed in the UK. This is in spite of the UK’s considerable and protracted colonial history in the Pacific and the UK’s renewed and growing Indo-Pacific focus on foreign policy.
A lake of archipelago
In 1994, Tongan-Fijian author Epeli Hau’ofa described Oceania as” a lake of islands” connected by countless generations of sea transportation, inter-island relationships and careful observation of economic cycles. This challenged imperial notions of the Pacific as isolated “islands in a way sea” that could be used by foreign powers.
Britain, France, and Germany have long imperial histories in this ocean, despite the US now having the most significant territorial and military presence in the region.
Following Captain James Cook’s excursions in the late 18th century, the rise of European colonization into the Pacific extracted vast amounts of wealth from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
American imperialism attempted to impose Western culture on indigenous peoples as well. The scattered Mori vocabulary and knowledge systems in Aotearoa New Zealand were later brought back by Mori movements, who have since worked hard to revive.
Phosphor mining on Banaba ( a island in Kiribati ) ruined island ecosystems and forced the indigenous Banabans to flee.
Defense testing floor
Between 1946 and 1958, the US tested nuclear arms in the Marshall Islands. The American military tested gas bombs in Malden Island and Kiritimati, as well as in Australia. These assessments caused serious health issues among islands, including birth defects and tumours, and long-term natural harm.
Indigenous Pacific-led actions have long resisted military and nuclear imperialism in Moananuiākea ( the vast ocean ). The Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific action pressed for the 1986 Rarotonga Treaty to create a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone. Important discussions about Pacific indigenous self-determination were sparked by this approach.
Lately, the Indo-Pacific has become a target yet again for European power. In the UK, the 2023 Integrated Review Refresh sets out the objective of establishing” a permanent German sea presence in the Indo-Pacific” in response to the “epoch-defining problem” of China.
This came after the UK, the US, and Australia launched AUKUS in 2021. This agreement aimed to “deepen political, security, and security assistance in the Indo-Pacific region”. This may include preparing Australia with nuclear-powered boats, to been built by American firms BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce.
How the novel Labour administration may view the Pacific is still to be seen. But in the UK and US’s shared language of a “free and empty Indo-Pacific”, the concerns of Indigenous Pacific islands are usually ignored. ” World protection” and business take precedence, it seems.
Little has changed since the British military’s support of a group of American businessmen’s overthrow of the separate Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. Despite the fact that Native Hawaiians ( Kenaka Maoli ) have a lot of cultural, spiritual, and ecological significance, the US military started using the Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe as a bombing range in 1941.
Pushing against RIMPAC
By the middle of the 1970s, the growing Pacific independence movement was beginning to force the US to stop using Kaho’olawe for military training activities, including RIMPAC.
The tension eventually bore fruit when, before Rimpac 1982, Australia and New Zealand agreed never to tank Kaho’olawe. In 1984, Japan followed match.
The Royal Navy firing of Kaho’olawe was brought up in parliament by UK MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Tam Dalyell in 1986. In 1990 all bombing of Kaho’olawe suddenly stopped. However, the bombing’s economic damage may be difficult to stop.
This time, a coalition of Hawaii-based and foreign groups are resisting RIMPAC afterwards.
Through the military’s activity of the islands and environmental damage to lands and waters, group organizers Kawena’ulaokal Kapahua and Joy Lehuanani Enomoto claim that RIMPAC contributes to continuing Aboriginal displacement.
It’s also associated with increased sex trafficking and sexist violence that largely affect Kānaka Maoli girls, girls, and gender-nonconforming individuals.
In a time of extreme violence against Palestinians in Gaza, groups in Hawaii, the US, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Malaysia have condemned their countries ‘ involvement in RIMPAC alongside Israel this year.
Defining RIMPAC as an “exercise” – in other words, a model – the strategy argues, obscures its dangerous material results on communities and ecosystems in Hawaii and above.
According to Cancel RIMPAC alliance members, they want to “build on the legacy of previous generations of Kanaka Maoli and Indigenous Pacific-led efforts for demilitarization and colonialism” and” thousands of years of Aboriginal stewardship and ethnic tradition throughout Pasifika.”
In this “multi-generational, multi-racial” movements, they add, global solidarity is important. In this environment, issues need to be asked about the UK’s continued participation in these naval exercises.
Kate Lewis Hood is postdoctoral fellow in landscape, Royal Holloway University of London
This content was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original content.