This past summer, Jo-Jikum was happy to finally host the second instalment of our Climate Change Arts Camp in its new iteration as the Climate and Health Arts Seminar.

The Climate Change and Health Arts Seminar was an arts camp for high school students that allowed participants to explore the connections between climate change and health through the medium of the arts.

The Seminar, run by our nonprofit with partnership from Ministry of Health, recognizes the power of the arts in communicating and understanding the complex issue of climate change. With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting and closing the borders in the Marshall Islands, these discussions became all the more relevant, in understanding how the destruction of natural habitats is interwoven with climate impacts and manifests in community health impacts such as COVID-19 as well as other illnesses such as dengue.

The theme for the camp, “Ejelet añõneañ im rak” is a theme that was given to us by the Culture, Language, and Law Commission (CLLC), who explained that añõneañ and rak are seasons for harvest. “Añõneañ” is the season for preserving pandanus, or bõb, as well as other traditional foods such as bwiro, makmok, and jaanwkin, while “Rak” is the season for preserving breadfruit or ma. Members of CLLC explained that climate change makes bõb season or ma season unpredictable. Sometimes the harvest is late, or sometimes it’s too early. The changing temperatures and rising sea level affects growth of plants, which in turn affects our health and food security. The logo featured on the seminar tshirts incorporates this theme and was designed by Marshallese graphic artist Ronnie Reimers.

The Seminar took place July 20 – 31 at the College of the Marshall Islands campus. The Seminar worked with 39 students in total, 13 boys and 23 girls, with representation from high schools across Majuro and Micronesia. The 39 students came from the Marshall Islands High School, Assumption High School, COOP School, Seventh Day Adventist High School, Kwajalein High School, Marshall Islands Baptist Christian Academy, and Xavier High School, and were from 9th to 12 grades.

The Seminar daily schedule was broken up into team building exercises and presentations from partners who with expertise in environment and health in the mornings, followed by intensive art classes in the afternoons. Students were able to choose between weaving, painting, songwriting, and poetry for their art classes – they ranked their top preferences and they stayed in these classes for the duration of the seminar.

The art classes were taught by local artist professionals. The camp was also assisted and facilitated by 6 college student interns – these interns acted as “camp counselors” and provided additional administrative support as well as moral support for the students, and were affectionately known as “Powerpuff Rangers.” A component of preparation for the seminar was spent in providing leadership workshops to these 6 interns to provide proper support for them as well.

The presentations included representatives from the Ministry of Health, Climate Change Directorate, Weather Station, Culture Language and Law Commission, CMI Land Grant, Red Cross, and MICS. Besides presentations, the students were able to go on two field trips – one for coastal planting with CMI Land Grant, and another to snorkel to observe coral bleaching effects with MICS. The topics of discussions included COVID-19 and dengue and links to climate change, climate change and its effects on manit (Marshallese culture), coastal erosion and coral bleaching.

The final showcase was the night of July 31, with students sharing their painted and woven pieces, and the poets and songwriters performing their new work, with opening remarks from the Secretary of Health Jack Niendenthal.

The products created from the Seminar are in the process of being shared. The songs will be recorded by the local radio station 103.5, while the poetry and art work will be reprinted into small chapbooks by local printers. The weaving will be framed and along with the artwork will be transferred to the Majuro Hospital for display, before being transferred to other locations for the purposes of dissemination.

We are grateful to these organizations for providing the funding for this program: RMI Ministry of Health, Scaling Up Pacific Adaptation (SUPA) – GCCA+, Marshall Islands Conservation Society (MICS), with support from College of the Marshall Islands (CMI).

Watch: Climate Change and Health Highlights Video

Photos from the Final Performance and Showcase Night