Skip to content
Reading time: 2 minutes

Jetnil-Kijner at the Opening Ceremony of the U.N. Climate Summit.

Jetnil-Kijner speaks at the People’s Climate March in
New York on September 21 (she appears 45 seconds
into the video), CNN

Recent University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa graduate and Marshall Islander Kathy Dede Nein Jetnil-Kijner was one of the seven speakers at the opening ceremony of the 2014 United Nation’s Climate Summit at the U.N. New York headquarters on Tuesday, September 23, 2014. The summit brought together world leaders to advance climate action.

Jetnil-Kijner shared the stage with luminaries including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. She was the civil society representative at the opening ceremony, chosen from more than 500 individuals nominated from over 100 nations.

At the 400,000-person strong People’s Climate March in New York on Sunday, September 21, Jetnil-Kijner said, “I want people to know that there are thousands of years of history and culture that will also disappear should our islands go.”

“Climate change is one of the most pressing problems in the Pacific Islands region,” said Terrence Wesley-Smith, director of the UH Mānoa Center for Pacific Studies. “It is encouraging to see one of our recent MA graduates taking an active role spreading awareness of these issues to an audience of global leaders.”

About Jetnil-Kijner

Jetnil-Kijner is from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a small Pacific Island nation, with a population of 68,000 that is 2,800 miles southwest of Hawaiʻi. Consisting entirely of low-lying coral atolls, the Marshall Islands are on the front line of climate change.

A graduate of Honolulu’s University Laboratory School and Mills College, Jetnil-Kijner graduated with her masters degree in Pacific Island Studies from UH Mānoa in May 2014.

In recent years, Jetnil-Kijner founded an environmental non-governmental organization and established an international reputation as a powerful poet and spoken-word artist who tackles key issues impacting Marshall Islanders, including the legacy of nuclear testing, racism and climate change. Her performance at the prestigious Poetry Parnassus held at the Southbank Centre in London prior to the Olympic Games in 2012 was widely praised.

Jetnil-Kijner is now a lecturer at the College of the Marshall Islands.

Read the Center for Pacific Island Studies news release for more.

Video performances by Jetnil-Kijner

Back To Top