In commemorating World Ocean Day, a new children’s book was launched to celebrate the history and journey of nuclear justice in the Marshall Islands.
Elimoñdik is the first in a new series of children’s books by author, Brooke Takala, from the Marshall Islands.
It is a story told to two young boys, Ahti and Aapo, of their brave great grandfather, Iroijlaplap Lañiñi, the Paramount Chief of Enjebi, who was in pursuit to free his people from the ravages of World War 2 between Japan and the USA, and what was to be the start as nuclear testing.
It is a story of exile and the wish by two young boys to return to an island home free from nuclear contamination. Today, Ahti and Aapo live in exile on Majuro due to the poison remaining on Enjebi.
The boys invite you to join them on their adventures and work together to make a world free from nuclear weapons.
Elimoñdik was the name of Iroijlaplap Lañiñi’s canoe while living in exile on Ujelang during the nuclear bomb tests, and by definition of the word, the book itself is an offering to the boys’ great grandfather.
More than 300 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons were detonated in the Pacific. The impacts of those bombs are still felt today from illnesses to contamination to forced displacement.
Nuclear submarines cruise our oceans, and nuclear waste is shipped between continents and often dumped at sea. Our oceans hold stories of great tragedy but also hope. In the words of young Ahti, “the Ocean means life.”
The aim of this book is to share a history forgotten by many, to connect the children of the Marshall Islands with the whole of Oceania and beyond, and be a learning tool in achieving a nuclear free and independent Pacific.
Elimoñdik is the first publication by Youngsolwara, a movement of Pacific youth for Pacific self-determination of which Ahti and Aapo are the youngest members.
The illustration was done by Youngsolwara artist, Hefrani Barnes.
