Rising Sea, Drifting Bones, Dispersing Homes

This chapter engages some of the trials with which the rising sea gift islanders in Oceania, and beyond. Whether climate change or global warming causes the sea to rise, and rise, perpetuated by human action or not, are beyond the focus of this chapter. My concern is with an existential predicament: the sea is rising on the shores of Oceania and this pushes islanders (1) to rethink our beliefs and understandings, (2) to grieve at the unearthing of the remains of ancestors from beachfront graves, and (3) to relocate our [understandings of] homes and gathering sites because they are no longer safe and secured. The rising sea moves, and shifts things around.