{"id":59287,"date":"2023-04-22T13:39:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-22T01:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=59287"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:11:10","slug":"deep-sea-mining-and-neocolonialism-in-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/deep-sea-mining-and-neocolonialism-in-the-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep sea mining and neocolonialism in the Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The recent milestone of the Global Oceans Treaty, which aims to protect marine biodiversity and regulate human activities in the high seas, was a hard-won victory for the international community. As an indigenous person from the Pacific, I felt a sense of hope and pride in our collective efforts to safeguard the world’s oceans for future generations. <\/p>\n\n

However, that sense of  hope stirred into further inspiration when I found myself only weeks later in the water, confronting a ship that bore the name of a notorious coloniser in the Pacific, James Cook, and was seeking to push the agenda of deep sea mining in the region. The ship’s presence in the Pacific Ocean is a stark reminder of the ongoing legacy of colonialism and the exploitation of natural resources that has plagued the region for centuries. <\/p>\n\n

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The fact that a ship involved in the deeply controversial practice of deep sea mining has taken the name of a figure who represents the very worst of colonial exploitation in the Pacific, is a cruel insult to my people, and the people of the Pacific. Cook’s expeditions were part of a larger pattern of European colonisation and exploitation in the Pacific, which had devastating consequences for indigenous communities. Cook’s encounters with tangata o le moana – the people of the Pacific, were characterised by violence, forced displacement, and cultural erasure, as European imperial powers sought to impose their values and norms on indigenous people.<\/p>\n