Blood in the Water
Dorell Ben
Dorell Ben is a Gujarati-Rotuman woman from Fiji. Ben’s art and research is primarily around reawakening Indigenous women’s Oceanic cultural tattoo practices, and Indigenous knowledge systems across time and space.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of the Pacific Islands Development Program or the East-West Center.
Featured photo courtesy of Dorell Ben.
The Anthropocene marks a profound human-induced change to our environment and climate, rapidly accelerating the ominous effects of climate change and leaving an indelible imprint on the Earth’s ecological system. However, in Oceania, these effects are not isolated and are very often interlaced with other social, economic and political contexts. Oceanic indigenous women frequently find themselves regulating the socioeconomic-political landscape. Having been caged into these societal frameworks, we women have had to harness feminist praxis to mobilize communities to address critical climate concerns. Our artistic practices, despite being inherently gendered, approach issues from women’s bodily autonomy, hierarchies of violence, and cultural obligations. These feminine spaces serve as conduits to generating community awareness in a variety of these topics. The inception of my art series Blood in the Water was fueled by our Oceanic women’s indomitable catalytic dialogues.
In 2022, Asia-Pacific Leadership Network put out a call for an ongoing project entitled “Nuclear Disarmament and the Anthropocene.” The aim of the initiative was to draw attention to the drastic changes occurring within the Pacific, from “global climate, environments, and contemporary nuclear weapons policies.”[1] My contribution to this project’s women’s category is Blood in the Water. The creative conceptual series promulgates the Anthropocene and the relationship humans have with our environment. Later in 2023, this art series was transformed into a collaborative video with Fijian artist Regina Vakaʻuta.[2] The compelling video highlights the watery landscapes of the creative conceptual art from ancestries, legacies, and healing journeys for our Indigenous peoples of the Pacific. However, Blood in the Water is a series that addresses issues that have haunted our Oceania since the beginning of our disregard for our environments, often ushered by Imperialism and colonial legacies.
This tenebrous history is one that has dehumanized and isolated many of our Pacific Islands from their indigeneity as an act of survivance. It induced the loss of sovereignty in our knowledge systems and narratives, our bodies, and land. Epeli Hauʻofa, in 1997, observed that “our societies are preoccupied with the pursuit of material wealth, when the rampant market economy brings out unquenchable greed and amorality in us,” and proposed that we need “to develop corrective mechanisms” before we are capable of regaining our humanity and community.[3] Reflecting on his words, it is evident that in our contemporary, the systems that have been in place obstructing our healing from such oppressive legacies, are now being dismantled.
Yet, much of the systemic dismantling is through slow progressions since Hauʻofa’s presentation in 1997. The awareness and urgency of our environmental challenges leave our Indigenous peoples at the forefront of the fight. As cultural custodians of our land and seas, not only are we tasked with preserving the cultural lifestyle, but we are also tasked with reclaiming the cornucopia of our Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies. In the awe-inspiring anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, we are gifted words of hope from the editors Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua. The anthology serves a collection of narratives, insights, and perspectives from Oceanians about a sustainable Oceania through an imaginative and emotional lens, one that invokes as Lutunatabua writes is a “tender balance between urgency and humanity.”[4] In essence, this anthology aims to strengthen our collective courage and creativity in the face of global challenges. It is a testament to the power of human ingenuity and resilience, providing a source of inspiration for those engaged in the ongoing struggle to secure a sustainable and harmonious future for the planet.
Blood in the Water echoes these stories of hope and impeccable perspectives of our Oceanic narratives. As an art expression encompassing these many interconnected complications, the series considers the flow of mana. Mana, as an esoteric form of energy, reconceptualizes performativity.
We invoke the element to transform expressions from the way they are perceived to the way these are experienced. Much so in the way that women in their feminine spaces are often extended only to the peripheries of the unseen, unheard and sacred, invoking the mana through Blood in the Water suggests that there is indeed power embedded within our human expressions and actions. Perhaps lingering in its woven art expression, the series extends beyond past actions, challenging our spiritual resonance from trauma to healing. In this journey, we have much to do to draw attention to these broader entities in our Oceania.
Notes
[1] Asia-Pacific Leadership Network, “Voices from Pacific Island Countries,” last modified September, 27 2022, https://www.apln.network/projects/voices-from-pacific-island-countries/winners-of-the-pacific-islands-creative-competition.
[2] Dorell Ben and Regina Vakaʻuta, “Blood in the Water,” Asia-Pacific Leadership Network, YouTube video, 3:20, May 23, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH-ct2CuyWg.
[3] Epeli Hauʻofa, “The Ocean in Us,” in We Are the Ocean: Selected Works, University of Hawaii Press, 2008, 42.
[4] Rebecca Solnit and Thema Young Lutunatabua, eds., Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2023), 16.