Arms and legs of

the plundered sea, for whom is it

you dance?

from Southern Pacific Ocean by Gregory O’Brien[i]

Oceans and seas end here, in New Zealand. A useful transport route, oceans have over millennia facilitated the movement of peoples. Settlement of New Zealand was a result of planned colonialization by Māori, and Europeans in turn. Oceans have been navigated in search of opportunity, and have been a barrier fostering insularity. They facilitate contact with the other, but demand negotiation of  cohabitation.

Realm of Tangaroa, god of the sea, oceans feature fascinating and fearful creatures, both real and imaginary. They have been an inexhaustible supply of food, giving and sustaining. They are a source of energy, with reserves of gas and oil and minerals.

But oceans are suffering from exploitation: they are a convenient dumping ground, are overfished, are suffering from acidification and a drop in the pH level, and are indicators of global warming, with rising sea levels resulting in climate refugees.

Junctures invited submissions from authors on the theme of oceans, whether from the hard sciences, humanities, visual, sonic and performing arts, social sciences, law, education or medicine.

[i] Gregory O’Brien, Whale Years, (Auckland University Press, Auckland 2015), 20.