The Ocean on Fire

The Ocean on Fire: Pacific Stories from Nuclear Survivors and Climate Activists A Talk by Anaïs Maurer

Bombarded with the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb a day for half a century, Pacific people have long been subjected to man-made cataclysm. Well before climate change became a global concern, nuclear testing brought about untimely death, widespread diseases, forced migration, and irreparable destruction to the shores of Oceania. In The Ocean on Fire, Anaïs Maurer analyzes the Pacific literature that incriminates the environmental racism behind radioactive skies and rising seas. Maurer identifies strategies of resistance uniting the region by analyzing an extensive multilingual archive of decolonial Pacific art in French, Spanish, English, Tahitian, and Uvean, ranging from literature to songs and paintings. She shows how Pacific nuclear survivors’ stories reveal an alternative vision of the apocalypse: instead of promoting individualism and survivalism, they advocate mutual assistance, cultural resilience, South-South transnational solidarities, and Indigenous women’s leadership. Drawing upon their experience resisting both nuclear colonialism and carbon imperialism, Pacific storytellers offer compelling narratives to nurture the land and each other in times of global environmental collapse.

Anaïs Maurer is Assistant Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Rutgers University. Her research explores Indigenous decolonial ecologies, with a focus on nuclear imperialism and climate justice. Her first monograph, The Ocean on Fire: Pacific Stories from Nuclear Survivors and Climate Activists (Duke University Press, 2024), was awarded the MLA’s Scaglione prize in Comparative Literature and was listed in International Affairs‘ 10 best books. Raised in Tahiti, Anaïs Maurer strives to produce public scholarship for communities on the frontlines of imperial devastation. She has shared her research with nuclear survivors’ associations, schoolteachers, and governmental officials from Polynesia to the United Nations. In addition to her academic work, she campaigns for nuclear reparations and for the abolition of nuclear weapons as a board member of the Nuclear Truth Project.

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