Climate change will always have an impact on islands in the region but the work of climate activist Brianna Fruean gives hope to communities caught in the crisis that the issue will continue to take centre stage.

Mrs. Fruean caught the world leader’s attention when she spoke at the COP26 Summit this year, telling the world that the Pacific is not drowning but is fighting. In attendance at the summit were world leaders: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden, Prince Charles, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres and British environmentalist and documentary-maker Sir David Attenborough.

"When I was a little girl, I was taught the importance and impact of words. In my culture in Samoa there's a proverb that goes 'E pala ma'a ae le pala upu', it means that even stones decay but words remain," Ms. Fruean said at the COP26.

"A lesson in knowing how words can be wielded, how text can change everything, how each word you use is weighted.

“How switching one word or number could reframe worlds, how climate action can be vastly different from climate justice, how two degrees could mean the end and 1.5 could mean a fighting chance.

"You all have the power here today to be better to remember that in your meeting rooms and drafting documents are more than just black and white objects to remember that in your words you wield the weapons that can save us or sell us out.

"I don't need to remind you of the reality of vulnerable communities. If you're here today you know what climate change is doing to us.

“You don't need my pain or my tears to know that we're in a crisis."

And Ms Fruean’s journey, in her bid to put the spotlight on the climate crisis, did not end at the COP26. Last month she confirmed that the climate fight would continue in Australia against the construction of the Adani mine in Queensland, which will become one of the world’s largest coal mines in the southern hemisphere when fully operational. 

Speaking to the media last month, the young Samoan activist in a word of encouragement to other activists said they should not let the world make them feel small.

"We are the size of our ocean and not the size of our islands,” she said, echoing a quote made famous by Tongan writer and anthropologist, the late Epeli Hau'ofa.

Ms. Fruean has been a climate activist from her primary school days and started Samoa’s chapter of 350.org when she was 11 years of age. Three years later she attended a United Nations conference as a Pacific youth ambassador and at the age of 16 she won a Commonwealth Youth Award, becoming the youngest person ever to do so and has spoken at previous United Nations climate change conferences.