Since the first migrations of the population of the Kiribati and Tuvalu islands (for the majority) and their settlement in the new territories for refugees from Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the different NGOs working for the rights of these refugees are working on the perpetuation of their traditions.
In the continuum of this fight, today's date may be a milestone for these associations who were finally able to attend the signing of the regional agreement to lay the foundation stone of the future Funeral home in virtual reality of the Pacific.
Established on the basis of a now-usual platform for reconstructing ancestral historic sites, this funerarium will carefully restore the cemeteries now buried in the blue of the Pacific and will be a place of prayer and meditation for these populations who no longer have access to sites where rest their ancestors.
This event is a real relief for the refugee populations who had had the opportunity to protest many times about their situation and the glaring lack of social and traditional references since their departure.
This monument will have the advantage of not occupying too much land in a context where land becomes a highly coveted element in the region.
Of course, many voices are heard about the lack of a real link between the people and their burial places now engulfed. It should be remembered that this option was chosen instead of a more cumbersome and costly technical solution: the transport of the population by boat, every year, to return to the sites of their submerged islands to perform commemorative ceremonies .
While this option is of course open to individual initiatives, it remains difficult given the lack of recognized status of these former lands now immersed, status still under discussion within the United Nations.
In the meantime, each community will have a right of access to this virtual funeral home and the virtual content will be refined in agreement with the communities concerned.