The disastrous effects of mass tourism on island cultures is best observed in Hawai'i, where the multibillion dollar industry has resulted in grotesque commercialization of our Native culture, creation of a racially stratified, poorly paid servant class... -Haunani-Kay Trask

"Because of their familial attachment to both land and sea, Pacific Islanders know a solidarity of geography and culture. Despite their diversity, they are all Island peoples in struggle with larger predatory powers." -Haunani-kay Trask

'The continuing ravages of colonialism are what the United States has bequeathed to Hawaiians, Micronesians, and Samoans.' -Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii

'From the Indians of the Americas to Pacific Island Natives, to the indigenous peoples of Asia, the United States has an unbroken record of invasion, land theft, and genocide.' -Haunani-kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii

'If the Hawaiian experience with tourism has taught anything, it is that inundation of small land bases and populations by hordes of visitors depletes the Native culture to a point of irreparable damage.' -Haunani-Kay Trask

'The First World nations must still learn what Pacific Islanders have known for millennia: upon the survival of the Pacific depends the survival of the world.' -Haunani-Kay Trask

'Migration is treated as a recent phenomenon, even though the genocide, displacement, and movement of millions of people was unequally structured by European colonialism for three centuries...' -Harsha Walia, Border and Rule

'Australia’s oppressive offshore detention system, including on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, is squarely connected to the genocidal history of colonization and racist regulation of migration by White Australia.' -Harsha Walia, Border and Rule

'Most ironic, the migration crisis is declared a new crisis with Western countries positioned as its victims, even though for four centuries nearly eighty million Europeans became settler-colonists across the Americas and Oceania...' -Harsha Walia, Border and Rule

'Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana' has fought for decades— from stopping military bombing in the 1970s to leading cultural, ecological, and spiritual restoration today. Their mission remains clear: protect the island, revive its traditions, and ensure its future.'

The Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific movement emerged in the 1970s to resist nuclear testing, colonialism, and militarization across the Pacific. Led by Indigenous communities, it united the region to demand sovereignty, protect the ocean, and end nuclear harm.

'Islands such as Guam, the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, and the Marshall Islands are places where local environmental health and human security have been sacrificed for the sake of maintaining U.S. “national security” and hegemony in Asia.' -Sasha Davis, The Empires' Edge

"...the US treated these islands (Micronesia) as areas of strategic denial, sites for military bases, and sacrifice zones for nuclear weapons testing. The US blocked attempts for formal sovereignty... by disallowing any foreign direct investment for 3 decades." -Sasha Davis

"It is inaccurate to state that there is an urgent need for a robust US military presence in the Western Pacific to counter an imminent, articulated Chinese threat, because that threat appears to emanate more from actors in Washington than it does from Beijing." -Sasha Davis

"...the Pacific continues to be treated by external states not so much as a home to Indigenous inhabitants but as a stage on which to compete with each other militarily, politically, and economically." -Sasha Davis; Islands & Oceans, Reimagining Sovereignty & Social Change

"Whether we are talking about unincorporated territories such as Guåhan, commonwealths such as the Northern Marianas,... or incorporated/occupied archipelagos such as Hawaii, there is nothing post-colonial about the contemporary Pacific." -Sasha Davis, Islands & Oceans

"Anti-militarization social movements prioritize regulative principles that include environmental protection... an articulated desire for political self-determination/decolonization, concern for human health, and the ways militarization particularly affects women..." Sasha Davis

"On the left side of the political spectrum, indigenous groups, anti-imperialist social movements, and progressive anti-capitalists have looked to enhancing sovereignty as a way to resist the exploitation of transnational capitalism..." -Sasha Davis

Contradicting the pundits... social movements in the Pacific are evolving whose aims are not to support one hegemonic power or another, but rather to transcend hegemony and domination as the organizing principles of international politics. -Sasha Davis, The Empires' Edge

The islands in the imperial margins of the western Pacific have been subjected to intense militarization and colonial practices that aim to control their landscapes, ecologies, politics, and societies. -Sasha Davis, The Empires' Edge

'The Pacific is not empty. The Pacific is not paradise. The Pacific is not a wasteland. The Pacific is not already postcolonial. The Pacific is not dependent. The Pacific is not the tip of someone else’s spear. The Pacific is not someone else’s borderland.' -Sasha Davis

In 1985, France bombed Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior in a New Zealand harbor—killing a photographer and silencing a protest against nuclear testing. Hard to preach liberté while sinking those who expose environmental harm.

France’s nuclear testing across French Polynesia wasn’t “defense,” it was nuclear colonialism. 193 tests scarred the land, poisoned communities with fallout, fueled cancer crises, and deepened political/economic dependence. Decades later, survivors are still fighting for justice.

Between 1966 and 1996, France conducted 193 nuclear tests in the South Pacific, primarily at the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, leading to significant environmental and health consequences for the local population.

Nuclear colonialism has left deep scars on the Pacific- from stolen land and forced relocations to generations living with health, environmental, and cultural loss. These islands were treated as expendable test sites, and their people are still fighting for justice.

Palau didn’t ‘choose’ to abandon its nuclear‑free constitution; the US squeezed it for years, withholding aid and rerunning votes until the outcome flipped. Call it what it was: a superpower strong‑arming a tiny nation to clear the way for its own strategic military interests

COFA’s neo‑colonial edge in Palau: U.S. controls Palau’s external defense, ties funding to its own politics, and prioritizes its Pacific strategy over Palau’s needs — leaving Palau sovereign in name but structurally dependent.

"...The Compact of Free Association promises independence, its subtext reveals otherwise: it is in fact a virtual US annexation of the islands for military purposes, a denial of self-determination, and a shrugging off of responsibility for past actions." -Jane Dibblin

Of all the colonial powers that have ruled Micronesia, the US is the most perfidious... The US has steadfastly maintained that its primary concern is the Micronesian's welfare, while doing everything in its power to destroy the validity of the Micronesian People. -Jane Dibblin

The Compacts of Free Association give island nations legal sovereignty, but they function like virtual colonies: U.S. controls defense, shapes economies through aid dependence, and restricts foreign policy, so independence exists on paper, never in practice.

The U.S. still refuses to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, and Micronesia gets hung out to dry. Washington claims to champion Pacific allies, yet won’t sign the one agreement that protects their waters and leverage.

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: sign.moveon.org/petitions/pe...

Many in Micronesia say the Peace Corps wasn’t “service” at all — it was a U.S. soft‑power machine that rewrote local identity, rewired schools, and pushed an agenda that fit U.S. strategic goals. Development was the cover; indoctrination was the play.

Micronesia is literally drowning. As seas rise and storms intensify, many experts warn that U.S. climate rollbacks under the Trump administration accelerate the crisis. Island nations on the front lines can’t afford policies that ignore their survival.

Marshall Islanders live with the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing, yet many are still barred from the medical care sitting behind the gates of the American base on their own islands. Denying access isn’t bureaucracy- it’s injustice. These communities deserve the healthcare they were promised.

Christianization in Micronesia didn’t just ‘spread faith’—it dismantled ancestral knowledge, imposed foreign hierarchies, and rewired entire societies to fit colonial agendas. Naming that harm is the first step toward reclaiming what was taken.

5 UN special rapporteurs raise 'deep concerns' over US military projects in Palau guampdn.com/news/5-un-sp... via @GuamPDN

'We never realized that in truth our traditional culture was much closer to communism than to capitalism . . . We were colonized and thoroughly brainwashed.' -Isaac Soaladaob, former director of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs of Palau

U.S. militarization in the Marshall Islands displaced communities, erased traditional livelihoods, and forced a cash economy that hit women hardest- leaving some with no options but survival‑based sex work. Marshallese women have carried the deepest costs of occupation.

The U.S. detonated 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands- displacing communities, poisoning land, and causing generations of health crises. Decades later, most of the compensation awarded to the Marshallese has never been paid. The debt isn’t just financial; it’s moral.

The U.S. talks about partnership with Palau, but the reality looks like 21st‑century neocolonialism. Military dependence, economic leverage, and strategic pressure aren’t sovereignty-they’re control dressed up as diplomacy. Island nations deserve genuine autonomy, not power plays

Ebeye Island didn’t become overcrowded and under-resourced by accident — it’s the result of decades of U.S. military expansion in the Pacific. These conditions are consequences of imperial policy that displaced communities and concentrated poverty.

The U.S. militarization of Palau is environmental vandalism dressed up as “defense.” Missile sites and military buildup threaten the fragile ecosystems that island communities have protected for generations. The Pacific isn’t a battlefield — it’s a living world worth defending.

Life on Kwajalein exposes a truth too many choose to ignore: Marshall Islanders keep the island running while being shut out of the very space they sustain. Segregated living, restricted movement, unequal pay, and generations of exploitation aren’t accidents — they’re a system.

Palauan Youth have filed human rights complaints to the United Nations, arguing that U.S. militarization harms their rights to land, culture, and a healthy environment. They frame militarization as a continuation of colonial patterns that disregard Indigenous sovereignty

Palau’s history with U.S. imperialism has left deep marks; from militarization that risks making the islands a target, to limits on sovereignty, environmental damage from defense projects, and long‑term economic dependence. Palauans continue to push back for true sovereignty.

The Marshallese endured U.S. nuclear testing, forced displacement, radioactive contamination, broken promises under trusteeship, inadequate compensation, and ongoing militarized land use. Decades later, many harms remain unresolved.

(2/2) This directly conflicted with U.S. strategic interests in the Pacific. The United States refused to finalize the Compact of Free Association unless Palau amended or weakened these provisions.

(1/2) When Palau drafted its constitution in the early 1980s, it included one of the world’s strongest nuclear-free provisions, banning: nuclear weapons nuclear power foreign powers’ eminent domain This directly conflicted with U.S. strategic interests in the Pacific.

"The history of the Marshall Islands represents the extreme in colonial domination where the powerful decided that the relatively powerless should sacrifice their health and their lands to science, medicine, and global political and strategic interests." -Holly M. Barker