“Tied” responds to the issue of rising tides on low-lying Pacific Islands. A banner was made for the work that was the Sydney contribution to the opening event for the London Biennale. Five grey pixilated pyramids overlaid with wave patterns represent the five most vulnerable Pacific Islands identified by Pernetta (1989): Tokelau, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Line Islands and Kiribati. The representation of the impact of rising tides on Islander homelands suggests perspectives on news reporting: absence of reference to people and their suffering, absence of context and an oversimplification of information within a scientific presentation.

On Mayday 2006 the Indigenous owned and crewed “Deerubbun” was a floating gallery when moored at the Sydney Fish Market and a performance space when over two hundred frozen saltwater forms were placed from it into the calm waters of Farm Cove. People were invited to bring their own frozen dedications to contribute to the event. Pagan Mayday flower-giving rituals and Pacific Islander traditions of lei placing contributed to this idea. Varying in opacity, spiral ring and circular shapes bobbed up and down in the waves relating quite literally to our unstable frozen water reserves. Their gentle melting and washing away triggered ideas and emotions around temporality, erasure, loss and memory.

In cultural terms the Pacific Islands contain a disproportionate section of the world’s cultural and linguistic diversity. Pernetta (1989) states that over a third of the world’s languages are spoken in four countries in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, The Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia) and each island group is home to distinctive human cultures, having their own social and cultural mores, dance, dress, traditional knowledge and technologies. He believes that to preserve such ethnic diversity following migration to a larger developed and more culturally uniform society would be difficult if not impossible.

This funerary performance was deliberately created for no audience in attendance, unlike the Islander people who continue to seek response from the international community. The Pacific Islands have not contributed to global warming yet they will be the first victims from it and assistance from the international community has been minimal. This neglect partly stems from the view by Western economists that these islands are non-viable, being heavily dependent on remittances, aid and development monies for present survival. Connell and Roy (1989) suggest this dependence on outside sources of financial assistance is a consequence of the western-style economic structures that developed pre-independence that have continued into the post-independence era due to a lack of available alternative modes of development, rather than through active choice and decision on the part of the Governments concerned.

Video installations on the boat included interviews with Islander people from the Sydney Fishmarket and representatives from the Pacific Island Mount Druitt Action Network who described changes to their islands over recent years, expressing fears about displacement as well as cultural perspectives on memory. Concerns were raised about Australia’s record of not granting refugee status as well as the treatment of people who have been granted refugee status. 52,059 first ancestry Pacific Islander people identified in the 2001 Australian Bureau of Statistics census indicating an already strong familial link between our islands that should send messages of even greater responsibility to our neighbours.

An audio installation heard on all areas of the boat included the slow gush of crashing ice sheets into water and dripping sounds, as well as an occasional boat engine that drones on to be quite loud at one stage in the loop. This draws attention to the Deerubbun’s engine that is lost from your mind when on the boat for a short while, that can lead you to ponder about the lack of internalized anchors to pull you in check to your local actions of fossil fuel consumption.

As a gesture of respect to those Islanders whose islands are represented on the banner, at the end of the performance the Deerubbun circled five islands on Sydney Harbour.

Many thanks to our sponsor City of Sydney and in-kind partners Sydney Fish Market, Tribal Warrior & Pacific Islands Mt Druitt Action Network

Connell, J and Roy, P, P. (1989), ‘The greenhouse effect, impact of sea level rise on low coral islands in the South Pacific.’ In Pernetta, J.C. and Hughes, P.J. (eds) Studies and Reviews of greenhouse related climatic change impacts on the Pacific Islands. Association of South Pacific Environmental Institutions.

Pernetta, John, J.C. (1989), Cities on Oceanic Islands: A Case Study of the Republic of Maldives. In Frassetto, R (ed) Impact of Sea Level Rise on Cities and Regions. Proceedings of the First International Meeting ‘Cities on Water’ Venice, December 11-13 1989.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001) Census.