Maina Talia
Maina Talia
Maina Talia is from the island of Vaitupu and is currently undertaking Doctoral Studies at the Charles Sturt University in Sydney. His doctoral research is specifically focused on the issue of “(tu)akoi (neighbour) and climate change from three trajectories, indigenous wisdom, biblical and geopolitics.” Mr Talia was the Tuvalu Association of NGOs Director in 2018, 2020. In his directorship capacity, he was instrumental in opening of a new Platform for Polynesians NGOs to dialogue with the leaders during the Polynesians Leader Group meeting in Tuvalu. As a pioneer of the Pacific NGOs/CSOs engagements with the Pacific Leaders Forum during Forum Meetings, he continues to follow the forum meetings and make substantial interventions on climate change and sea-bed mining.
Also in 2018, he was invited by the Pacific Forum CSO sector as Climate Change advisor to the Pacific CSO engagement team dialogue with the Forum Economic Minister’s Meeting (FEMM) in Palau. Since 2011 until today, Mr. Talia serves as the Tuvalu Climate Action Network (TuCAN) secretary. In his capacity as the secretary, he worked tirelessly to make sure that TuCAN is registered under Tuvalu’s law and to ensure that TuCAN has the financial support to run its own affairs. He was amongst the very few people who officially met in Suva, Fiji in 2013 to formally established what is now called – Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN). He serves as PICAN board member for a two year term.
Mr. Talia has attended numerous international meetings, especially the United Nations meetings in New York (Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues) and Geneva (Human Rights Councils) due to his special interest on “Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change.” He has also attended a number of Conference of the Parties (COPs) meetings consecutively. While in Bonn (COP23), he was appointed the Co-Chair of the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus under the UNFCCC Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform. His recent engagement was in 2019, when he was invited by the Green Party of the German Parliament to present a paper titled “Migration is a definite no – rather is a matter of choice.” Mr. Talia continues to advocate for his people at the international arena.