Atafu - drone footage, 0:36

This digital video footage was shot above the atolls of Tokelau by Andrew Matautia in 2017. Matautia was commissioned to work alongside Te Papa curators and co-collectors as part of Project IKA, a co-collecting project documenting people’s responses to the effects of climate change in Tokelau. Matautia travelled with the Te Papa team to the three atolls of Fakaofo, Nukunonu and Atafu where he took photographs and shot drone and digital video footage. Te Papa acquired a selection of this work. Tokelau, climate change and Project IKA On the coral atolls of Tokelau, environmental conditions are considered harsh due to their geography, limited agriculture and the effort required by people to live a sustainable lifestyle. Since the late twentieth century, these challenges have increased in frequency and severity due to the effects of climate change. They are evident in the form of coastal erosion, drought, intense cyclones, withered plants, diet changes, ocean acidification and changes in fish patterns. Through Project IKA, Te Papa worked with Tokelau based co-collectors to draw attention to these changes and the innovative responses to them from the Tokelauan community. For the Tokelau based co-collectors, Project IKA had three key areas of focus, with the aim of providing a broad survey of the impact of climate change for people in Tokelau. The areas were 1. Innovation 2. Faka-Tokelau (Traditional Environmental Knowledge) and 3. Living with Change: Atoll life. Through Project IKA, co-collectors assembled a large collection of objects, they guided photography documentation and facilitated interviews, all of which are now part of Te Papa’s collections. Project IKA was endorsed by the Taupulega (leaders) of each atoll and developed in liaison with Paula Faiva, Climate Change Programme Manager, Office of the Council for the Ongoing Government of Tokelau. Co-collecting at Te Papa Project IKA was part of a series of co-collecting initiatives developed by the Pacific Cultures team at Te Papa. They were inspired by Te Papa’s core philosophy of Mana Taonga, and a volunteer fieldworker’s programme run by the Vanuatu Cultural Centre since the 1970s.