While world leaders convene for APEC 2011, an alternative conference called Moana Nui will also summon its own dignitaries Nov. 9-11 in Honolulu. These will include activists, scholars, fair trade advocates, environmentalists as well as specialists in media, health, education and indigenous rights from Asia, Oceania and throughout the Americas.

Moana Nui — a pan-Polynesian term for "big ocean" — will provide a venue and a voice for Pacific island peoples to explore self-determination and sustainability in the shadow of transnational corporations, global industrial expansion and climate change. It’s an opportunity to convene an "Un-APEC," a Pacific People’s Summit of practitioners and experts with viewpoints that challenge the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation agenda.

As Kauai journalist John Letman aptly stated, "Moana Nui is set to ‘undress’ APEC."

Whereas APEC will meet in the luxury of Waikiki and Ko Olina in ultra-secrecy and high security, Moana Nui’s convocation will be open to the public at venues such as Calvary by the Sea and Church of the Crossroads. In these modest venues, including the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, the group will hold workshops and panel presentations, public discussions and breakout sessions that will examine the impact of APEC on the future of Hawaii and the greater Asia-Pacific region.

Why the concern about APEC?

APEC is an economic behemoth, which consists of 21 member countries that represent 41 percent of the world’s population and 54 percent of global GDP. Its goal is to promote free trade, market deregulations on labor and environmental resources, and economic policies that stimulate economic growth.

On the surface this seems benign and laudable, but we believe that APEC has meant a loss of economic control over resources that should be part of the livelihood and security of communities across the Asia-Pacific region. It is our view that APEC policies afford undue control by corporate entities over local populations around the Pacific, threaten traditional farming and fishing practices, water and land use rights and other resources.

Sadly, Hawaii people have become inured to disenfranchisement of our resources. For example, we are no longer self-reliant on food — but for other communities in the Asia-Pacific, this is not the case. Moana Nui is a call to action to remind people that it’s not too late to seize the moment.

Are we a voice crying out in the midst of the ocean?

Yes, and our voice must be heard.

As UH Professor John Osorio, and one of Moana Nui’s keynote speakers, said in a recent interview: "While we know there’s little we can do about that globalizing, capitalizing endeavor, we have to give people hope that we can strengthen our own native and local economies so that as instability continues, we can feed and clothe ourselves and care for our people and our lands. That’s the purpose of this conference."

Moana Nui will issue a challenge to Pacific island nations and communities to look for cooperative ways to strengthen subsistence and to protect cultural properties and natural resources. We hope to call public attention to the critical importance of creating self-reliant and produheheh rctive local economies in the Pacific islands.

Like the threat of global warming, maintaining control of our own resources and our own lives is not an abstract notion — it’s an existential challenge.

Please join us at Moana Nui.

Arnie Saiki is the coordinator of Moana Nui 2011 and can be reached at moananui2011@gmail.com. For information, visit http://moananui2011.org or join the Moana Nui 2011 Facebook page.