Beyond Displacement

By ​Omar Haji

When I think of the quote: “displacement is not the loss of home. It is the reminder that we carry home within us, like seeds waiting for the right soil.” I think back to when I migrated to the States 14 years ago, or the times I moved within Washington State. Of course, when I first got here, everything was unfamiliar, including waking up in an apartment instead of a refugee camp, and although I was just 3 years old at the time, I could feel a change in culture and setting. However, as I got older, and thinking back to it now, I realized that I carried my “home” with me. I brought my traditions from my homeland and continued them in America. 

This experience of mine helps me understand the experiences of communities facing climate displacement. Just like I carried my traditions and my culture across the world, Indigenous people want to do the same when they experience displacement. There is a roadblock, however, stemming from forced assimilation through both a lack of resources to live as they lived and regulations placed in that area. Even simple things like replanting traditional foods in different grounds, teaching traditional languages to the younger generations, and practicing their kinship and culture. 

I see similar, if not greater resilience in the case of the Marshall Islands, where rising sea levels and climate change in general have forced entire communities to relocate in search of a better life. Despite all of that, families from the islands continue to carry their traditions wherever they relocate by replanting gardens, teaching their languages to children, etc. Their ability to preserve their identity and memory of their land after such a harsh predicament shows that home is not simply a physical location—it lives within the people who carry it forward, like seeds waiting for the right soil. And it connects back with the quote of displacement not being just losing your home, but a reminder that each individual carries their home with them wherever they go.

The experience of Marshall Islanders illustrates how displacement can teach resilience and even deepen an individual's understanding of themselves. In a personal essay by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Hilda Heine in the Wilson Center, the following quote appears: “Yet the years we lived as a family in Honolulu would set the foundation for understanding the nuanced difficulties of living and migrating as a Marshallese.” This quote highlights that their time away from home didn’t erase their culture (they even later returned), it strengthened their ability to carry traditions forward and engage in climate action across communities. Sometimes relocation creates opportunities for someone to grow as a person and might even help them reach their goals. Although my story of relocation is a bit different, as my family was forced out of their country because of civil war, and then later relocated again in America, you can see the common theme of home being something you carry with you everywhere


Reference:

• Jetñil‑Kijiner, Kathy, and Hilda Heine. “Displacement and Out‑Migration: The Marshall Islands Experience.” Wilson Center, 30 Sept. 2020, www.wilsoncenter.org/article/displacement-and-out-migration-marshall-islands-experience 

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