Indigenous Pacific activists wrapped up a sequence of advocacy efforts in Kingston, Jamaica, as the International Seabed Authority recently closed a 12-day series of meetings that included discussions on deep-sea mining regulations.

The activists were from Hawaii, Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and they were brought to Kingston to participate in the advocacy efforts by Greenpeace and its partner organization, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. There they challenged the participating governments and the ISA to enact a total ban on deep-sea mining.

“Some of these communities have been campaigning for 10-plus years,” said Arlo Hemphill, global corporate lead of Greenpeace’s Stop Deep Sea Mining Campaign. “We used every opportunity we could to give our seat to the Indigenous and let them speak from our chair. And they were addressing issues very close to their hearts on matters such as cultural heritage, the right of informed consent and Indigenous participation in these kinds of forums.”

The decision to bring Indigenous stakeholders to participate in these conversations was a “no-brainer,” Hemphill said, since their communities would be the first to be impacted by the environmental effects of deep-sea mining.

Although Indigenous community members have participated in these discussions in the past, this was the first time that Greenpeace had brought such a large delegation, Hemphill said.

During their stay, the activists’ efforts were carried out in a series of events, which included presenting the ISA with a petition for a total ban on the industry. The petition included signatures from 34 countries and 56 Indigenous groups, according to a Greenpeace news release.

That same morning, Native Hawaiian activist Solomon Kaho‘ohalahala shared with ISA delegates a traditional chant that explains how Native Hawaiian genealogy stems from the deep sea, Kaho‘ohalahala said.

Six days later the Greenpeace ship transported two Maori activists from Kingston to Costa Rica, Hemphill said. There a United Kingdom ship called the James Cook was returning from a seven-week expedition in an area targeted for deep-sea mining.

The two activists swam in front of the ship, and while one held up the Maori flag, the other held one that read, “Don’t Mine the Moana.” Meanwhile, a Greenpeace activist scaled the side of the James Cook to unfurl a banner that read, “Say No to Deep Sea Mining.”

Countries and private companies will be able to submit provisional applications for deep-sea mining on July 10. And with the recent ISA meetings concluding without a finalized set of rules and regulations, more governments are asking for a precautionary pause on the industry, according to the news release.

However, both Greenpeace and the participating Indigenous activists believe that there will never be a sustainable method of deep-sea mining, Hemphill said.

“If you’ve ever seen any of the kinds of processes involved in the mining of the deep seas, you’ll see how destructive that process is,” Kaho‘ohalahala said. “The millions and millions of years that have created this (earth) to bring it into balance, … is now at the cusp of being destroyed at its source.”

Kaho‘ohalahala also noted that scientists cannot yet predict the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining. And while some might believe that the impacts can be controlled, he disagrees.

“It is important that none of this occurs, because this process is intruding upon the place of creation,” he said. “We need to protect that, not just for us as Aboriginal Hawaiians, but for island earth.”

The notion that governments and corporations can take such resources without considering the direct impacts on small Indigenous communities is seen as a continuation of colonialism, Hemphill added.

“Large, rich, northern corporations are coming in and taking what is rightfully the cultural heritage of Pacific people,” he said. “Impacting their lives from potential sedimentation of reefs to destruction of fisheries. … It was sickly ironic that the name of that ship was the James Cook.”

Experts estimate that it will be years until the ISA decides on an official set of rules and regulations, despite the fast-approaching application date for provisional deep-sea mining licenses.

“That’s the million-dollar question that has escalated this issue globally,” Hemphill said. “What’s going to happen when the deadline gets there, and how to deal with it in an equitable manner.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this article. Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.