Matagi Mālohi: Strong Winds

“Matagi Mālohi tells the story of our journey to uplift our people and shape a narrative that paints us not as victims of the climate crisis but as the leaders, the healers, the nurturers, the artists, the gardeners, the growers, the seafarers and the navigators we are.

We need to be the strong winds that have carried our ancestors across the seas. We need to be the strong winds pushing our leaders forward as they come up against the might of these big bullying nations. We need to be the strong winds, that Matagi Mālohi, that bring the change our people need to see.”

The Pacific Climate Warriors, born out of the low-lying Pacific Islands, are an indigenous and youth lead movement who now have been on the front lines of climate change for decades — their rally cry is “we are not drowning, we are fighting.”

Directed by: Aidan Haley, Canyon Woodward, Forest Woodward

Speech + writer: Kevin Aipopo

Creative direction + story + poetry: Fenton Lutunatabua

Pacific footage: Forest + Canyon Woodward

Climate rally footage: Aeon Visual / Zeke Jones

Audio Post Production: Ridgeline Sound

Music: Julian Calor – “Desperation”

With special thanks to:

Koreti Mavaega Tiumalu and family
Fenton Lutunatabua
Kevin Aipopo
The Pacific Climate Warriors family
The Pacific Islander Student Alliance
Thelma Young-Lutunatabua
Faitofi (Dobby) Pusinelli and family
Kevika Kemangu and family
Rurunteiti Kaiarake and family
The late Pusinelli Lafai and family
Bernard Ewekia
Rev. Tevasa Iakopo
Milikini Failautusi
Makerusa Porotesano
Simeon Jacob
Laura Yale
all our Tuvalu friends and particularly the island communities of Vaitupu, Nui, Nukufetau, and Funafuti

We also gratefully acknowledge the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, and Molalla peoples, among others, on whose homelands parts of this film were made.