Indigenous Fijian concept of "curui" offers a framework for understanding how climate justice, gender equality and education policies can be more effectively interwoven, highlighting current gaps in policy alignment

This paper examines how climate justice, gender equality and education intersect in Fijian policy through the metaphor of "curui" – an Indigenous Fijian practice of weaving or patching together. The authors argue that neither gender equality nor education alone can solve the immense challenges of the climate crisis, particularly for SIDS like Fiji. However, connected approaches that center Indigenous knowledges and perspectives may offer more effective policy responses.

The research analyzes six key Fijian national policies developed since 2010, including the National Curriculum Framework (2013), National Gender Policy (2014), and Climate Change Act (2021). The analysis reveals several important gaps in how these policies connect climate, gender and education concerns. While some policies acknowledge these intersections, they often fail to fully integrate Indigenous knowledges or justice perspectives.

The authors identify three key areas of concern in current policy approaches:

1.  First, education is often framed narrowly in terms of awareness-raising or technical capacity building, rather than as transformative practice. 
2. Second, gender considerations typically focus on general inclusivity rather than addressing specific impacts of climate change on women and girls. 
3. Third, Indigenous knowledges, while sometimes referenced, are not substantively incorporated into policy frameworks or implementation plans.

The analysis highlights how Fijian policy frameworks have evolved in response to both local needs and international agreements like the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, it also reveals persistent gaps between global policy discourses around girls' education and climate change, and local implementation realities. The authors note that while Fiji has been a leader in international climate policy, including co-hosting COP23 in 2017, domestic policies often fail to fully connect climate action with gender equality and education.

A key finding is that Indigenous knowledge systems, which have helped Fijian communities adapt to environmental changes for generations, are insufficiently recognized in current policies. While some policies reference traditional ecological knowledge, they often do so in ways that instrumentalize rather than center Indigenous perspectives. The authors argue this represents not only a missed opportunity for more effective climate responses, but also a question of justice.

The paper concludes by calling for policy approaches that more fully integrate Indigenous knowledges and justice perspectives. The paper makes an important contribution by proposing "curui" as both metaphor and methodology for understanding policy processes. This Indigenous framing emphasizes the importance of weaving together different knowledge systems and perspectives in ways that strengthen rather than replace existing practices. This could help create more holistic and effective responses to the interlinked challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and educational transformation.

The authors emphasize that such integration must go beyond simple inclusion of Indigenous perspectives to fundamentally reshape how policies are conceived and implemented. This requires moving away from treating gender equality or education as "silver bullets" for climate change, toward a more nuanced understanding of how these domains intersect with questions of justice, power, and Indigenous rights.