Amplifying Pacific Voices through Storytelling

Remathau: People of the Ocean is a feature documentary that follows the journey of Nicole Yamase, the first Micronesian to dive to the deepest part of the ocean, Challenger Deep, in the Marianas Trench. Nicole begins her journey of discovery by diving to the deepest part of the ocean, an area within the Marianas Trench named “Challenger Deep” that lies beneath the territorial waters of her country. When she surfaces, she is met with a storm of media attention. Feeling the immense pressure of being the first Micronesian to go down to the Challenger Deep (and only the second woman in history), Nicole begins a deeper dive into her own identity as a Micronesian and a descendant of great navigators. This experience ultimately opens her eyes to the true resilience of Pacific Island people who despite immense hardship brought on by external forces–continue to draw strength from the cultural practices, languages, and ancestral knowledge that anchor them to their oceanic homeland. The film is an exploration of collective identity through individuals who, although living within a diaspora, remain deeply connected to their home islands through their languages, communal values, cultural practices, and shared beliefs. It is a deep dive into Indigenous ways and Pasifik identity, with the intention of learning what it truly means to be Remathau, people of the ocean. Over the past five years the Pacific Human Rights Film Festival has connected more than ten thousand people from Fiji to Hawai’i, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Samoa, the Cook Islands, the Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu, bringing together audiences via film and talanoa with human rights advocates in Pacific Island Countries as well as Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and United States. This special pre-COP31 screening of Remathau: People of the Ocean will bring the festival to the conference participants in Nadi.