{"id":60122481,"date":"2026-03-05T17:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60122481"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:04:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:04:02","slug":"indigenous-ocean-voices-are-still-being-marginalised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/ocean\/indigenous-ocean-voices-are-still-being-marginalised\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous ocean voices are still being marginalised"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Angelo Villagomez began working in ocean conservation in the late 2000s, it was not an inclusive field for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy Indigenous identity was not necessarily welcomed,\u201d says the Micronesian conservationist and marine policy expert. \u201cI would have short hair, and I would dress in a tie and \u2026 try not to bring the Indigenous perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, he is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington DC, focusing on Indigenous-led conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, a growing number of academics<\/a>, coastal communities and advocates have been pushing for ocean governance and protection to focus more on inclusivity, justice and fairness. And for the relevant authorities to listen to and respect voices beyond the people in western-style suits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At international conferences, the attitude and agenda priorities are shifting along with the dress codes \u2013 at least on the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent UN Ocean Conference saw some wins<\/a> for the inclusion of Indigenous<\/a> people and local representatives. \u201cIndigenous\u201d and \u201cequity\u201d were more commonly invoked in speeches; for the first time at a UN Ocean Conference, they were referenced<\/a> in the UN secretary general\u2019s opening remarks. Indigenous people were also prominent as speakers and attendees, although some felt they were not heard by the powerful<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of those pushing for change, who Dialogue Earth has spoken to since the meeting, worry that exclusion and injustice remain deeply embedded in ocean institutions. This comes at a time when governments are negotiating rules to open the deep sea bed for mining, alongside the rush to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/div>
Angelo Villagomez speaking at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice. When he began working in ocean conservation in the late 2000s, he says the field was not inclusive of Indigenous perspectives (Image: Bianca Otero \/ ZUMA Press \/ Alamy)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey love when the Indigenous person sings for them, dances for them, prays for them, gives a land acknowledgement,\u201d Villagomez says. \u201cBut they can be threatened by the Indigenous scientist or the Indigenous intellectual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deep sea disagreements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For some communities, the ocean is a sacred place with ancestral and spiritual significance. Some Fijians<\/a> believe their ancestors\u2019 souls return to it when they die; in parts of Micronesia, end-of-life traditions<\/a> involve burial at sea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solomon Kaho\u02bbohalahala, a native Hawaiian elder widely known as Uncle Sol, said in a recent webinar: \u201cIn my genealogy of Oceania, it says that we are created from the deep ocean.\u201d The webinar was hosted by Impossible Metals, a deep sea mining company. Uncle Sol told the hosts that perspectives like his are largely being ignored:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNone of this is given any consideration in the ISA [International Seabed Authority]. It becomes a challenge in trying to bring one\u2019s cultural connection to the table \u2026 when they don\u2019t even acknowledge that this is a part of our connection to the deep sea.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surabhi Ranganathan, an expert on international law at the University of Cambridge, England, says delegates from some countries at ISA negotiations have pushed<\/a> for a narrow definition of cultural heritage. She says that instead of recognising living relationships with \u201cthe ocean itself\u201d, they seek to limit heritage to tangible sites and objects \u2013 such as shipwrecks, human remains and artefacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

Ranganathan believes this would make cultural heritage more legally manageable, and hence \u201cmore compatible with seabed mining\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debates over protecting intangible cultural heritage at the ISA continue. But Indigenous voices have already been sidelined, Ranganathan says, because calls from communities for a total ban on seabed mining have not been heeded: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes to an actual collision between what Indigenous people are demanding and what capitalistic interests are, you almost always see it\u2019s the Indigenous interest that gets completely relativised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically imbalanced power<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Exclusion and injustice at sea run a long way back. The ocean is intertwined with both modern and historical slave trading and wider colonialism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giulia Champion, who teaches critical ocean studies at the University of Southampton on England\u2019s south coast, says historians found traces of this injustice in the British survey ship HMS Challenger. In the 1870s, the warship-turned research vessel embarked on a four-year voyage from England to South Africa, through the Antarctic circle to Australia and New Zealand, and on to Hong Kong, Fiji and more. The expedition is sometimes framed as the birth of modern marine research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harnessing the access and resources<\/a> of the British empire, Challenger returned with measurements of marine temperature, depth, salinity and sediments, while collecting over 100,000 samples of animals and plants. Less discussed is how the voyage was rooted in British colonial ambitions and commercial interests, such as the expansion of the deep sea telegraph cable network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"old<\/div>
Portrait of an Indigenous crew member standing on the deck of HMS Challenger. His name was not recorded in the expedition’s archives, despite the help he gave guiding<\/a> the ship through the reefs surrounding Tonga (Image: Frederick Hodgeson<\/a> \/ National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, CC BY NC ND<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ocean has always been this surface for Europe to expand [across] and exploit,\u201d Champion says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The critical contributions<\/a> made by Indigenous and local communities, which the voyage often depended upon for navigation and specimen collection, were rarely recognised, she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Champion and other academics argue this imbalanced power structure persists<\/a>. They say it has been woven into the very fabric of international ocean law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The law is part of the problem\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) sets out principles and rules for the use of the ocean, and procedures for states to resolve disputes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its most consequential feature is authorising coastal states to establish jurisdictional zones. They can control and exploit the natural resources in their \u201cexclusive economic zone\u201d (EEZ), which extends 200 nautical miles from their coast. This underpins fishing, oil and gas drilling and other extractive activities. By one estimate, around 90%<\/a> of \u201charvestable resources\u201d in the entire ocean are in EEZs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/div>
EEZs are areas of sea and seabed over which coastal nations have jurisdiction and the exclusive right to exploit resources. They represent 42%<\/a> of the ocean but may contain up to 90% of \u201charvestable resources\u201d (Map: Diego Cobos<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Some see Unclos as a structure that reinforces colonial dynamics on the ocean, making it more easily exploitable by the economically powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the depletion of fish<\/a> driven by foreign fleets along West Africa\u2019s coasts can be traced back to Unclos, according to Guy Standing, an economist at the University of London\u2019s School of Oriental and African Studies. The law<\/a> specifically requires coastal nations that cannot fully exploit their allowable catch to grant access to other states. This has led to industrial fleets from wealthier nations outcompeting locals<\/a> in many areas, sometimes cited as a modern version of colonialism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ocean is not a lawless place, Ranganathan says, but it is still sinking into crises, including overfishing, oil spills and the deleterious impacts of climate change. She believes Unclos \u201cis also part of the problem\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decolonising ocean protection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even attempts to protect the ocean from extraction can intertwine with \u2013 and even cause \u2013 injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late 2000s, Villagomez was one of those initiating and campaigning<\/a> for a marine protected area around the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, which is located near his home in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the process of its creation was not entirely positive. Villagomez says pre-existing tensions and local feelings of injustice over being a US colony stirred locals\u2019 scepticism toward the protection plan, which was officially proposed by the US federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIssues of colonisation were brought up immediately\u201d with him by some of the community, Villagomez says. Tensions ran especially high after the Northern Mariana Islands lost its court case<\/a> against the US federal government over who controls the former\u2019s EEZs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After these problems, a series of efforts to demonstrate strong support in local communities was initiated. Prominent opponents, such as the governor of the islands, eventually embraced the designation amidst mounting public backing. The federal government<\/a> designated the Mariana Trench a Marine National Monument in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

Scepticism has its roots in many cases of exclusion. Work<\/a> by Villagomez found another US proposal to designate a national marine sanctuary<\/a> in the Pacific Remote Islands area, announced in 2023, failed to consult the Indigenous communities who live closest to the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half of the 20 largest marine protected areas in the world are the territories of nations based somewhere else<\/a> entirely, notes Villagomez. Local people in many such territories have traditionally had little say in decisions taken in capital cities on the other side of the globe. At the same time, these people are typically subjected to the worst impacts of the climate change and resource extraction that is being driven by the world\u2019s large and wealthy nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you create influence and power for these communities so that you can undo these inequities due to colonialism?\u201d asks Villagomez. \u201cYou\u2019re never really going to undo all of it. But how can you soften the blow?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good way to start, he says, is to move the control of science, conservation and management of these waters away from distant centres of power, and closer to the people who live there. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite progress and strong advocacy, some say local inclusion in ocean decisions is often still merely performative<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3906,"featured_media":60122493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50039901],"tags":[502,40027800,555,569],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-60122481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean","tag-activism","tag-deep-sea-mining","tag-indigenous-peoples","tag-negotiations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndigenous ocean voices are still being marginalised | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite progress and strong advocacy, some say local inclusion in ocean decisions is often still merely performative\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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