The Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) group grew out of the first regional Nuclear Free Pacific Conference in Fiji in 1975 which had been organised by the ‘Against French Testing in Moruroa’ (ATOM) group, founded in Fiji in 1970. Further conferences were held at Ponape in the Caroline Islands in 1978, in Hawaii in 1980 and in Vanuatu in 1983 where the far-reaching People’s Charter for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific was adopted. The NFIP movement brought together indigenous peoples from Hawaii, the Great Turtle Island (North America), Aotearoa, East Timor, West Papua, the Philippines, Polynesia, Melanesia, South Korea, and Japan.
The Charter declared,
‘We, the people of the Pacific have been victimised too long by foreign powers. The Western imperialistic and colonial powers invaded our defenceless region, they took over our lands and subjugated our people to their whims. This form of alien colonial, political and military domination unfortunately persists as an evil cancer in some of our native territories such as Tahiti-Polynesia, Kanaky, Australia and Aotearoa. Our environment continues to be despoiled by foreign powers developing nuclear weapons for a strategy of warfare that has no winners, no liberators and imperils the survival of all humankind.’
The Pacific Islands of Belau, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands became nuclear free in 1979, 1982 and 1983 respectively. The South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone was adopted in 1985.
Pacific Women Speak Out for Independence and Denuclearisation
Scoop Independent News: Making Aotearoa Nuclear Free
The People's Charter for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific
Asia Pacific Report: Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement
Peace Movement Aotearoa: Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day
