Autochthonous Knowledge and Uses of the Deep Sea: Contemporary Issues from a South Pacific Perspective

Autochthonous uses of the ocean are often considered only from a distant and patrimonial perspective, as a legacy from the past that has largely disappeared (such as the knowledge of navigating by the positions of the stars in the South Pacific). Such an exoticizing view of indigenous relations with the ocean tends to erase the contemporary political issues that indigenous peoples face in relation to the deep sea: issues of sovereignty, control, legitimacy of indigenous knowledge and uses of the ocean in decision-making processes – but also socio-economic issues related to the transformations of uses of maritime spaces and circulations within them in a globalized world. Indigenous voices on these issues are heterogeneous and come from contrasting places, and should therefore not be lumped together under the single label of "guardians of the Ocean". Likewise, indigenous knowledge does not stand in opposition to scientific knowledge, and indigenous uses of the ocean do not stand outside of global, capitalist economic uses of the deep sea (whether these uses are real or virtual). The aim of this paper is therefore to present a contemporary picture of autochthonous issues related to the uses of the deep sea in the South Pacific, restoring the heterogeneity of autochthonous positions and the complex science-policy-society entanglements they encounter.