Culture Compass is an exploration of survival, revival and connection throughout the Pacific.
The half-hour bespoke program, hosted by Seiuli Salamasina von Reiche, delves into the traditional and contemporary cultures in the Pacific.
It will take you all around the world as we uncover how and where our cultures are evolving - from how introduced foods like bully beef have become a part of our life to the integration of traditional and conventional medicine.
As global demand turns kava into pills and energy shots, what does this cost the Pacific?
"If kava is extracted and introduced into another beverage, is it still kava?"
That's the question Fe'iloakitau Kaho Tevi, Chairman of Tonga’s National Kava Committee, has been posing to Pacific leaders. Today, kava is being rapidly commercialised - squeezed into pills, energy shots, and mocktails around the world, while finding eager new markets closer to home in places like Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
That global boom is bringing in big money to local growers, but it's also pushing crops to the brink. Dr Apo Aporosa, a Fijian health scholar at the University of Waikato, says that widespread commercialisation has fuelled a wave of misunderstandings around kava's health implications.
At the same time, the land itself is under pressure. Kava can take up to five years to mature, and a shift toward monocropping has left crops vulnerable to diseases, while extreme droughts and cyclones ruin harvests.
As kava crosses borders and becomes a multi-million-dollar global commodity, who gets to control its future? And how do we balance an export boom with protecting a plant so deeply bound to Pacific identity?
Culture Compass was produced by Deadset Studios for ABC Radio Australia.
5 Oct 2026
Pacific healers race to protect traditional medicine plants impacted by climate disruption
Across the Pacific, traditional medicine has always been a way of life. Through centuries of colonisation, suppression, and cultural disruption, our elders held tight to this ancestral knowledge, ensuring it survived against all odds.
But today, traditional healing faces a new fight, a rapidly changing environment. As extreme droughts and superstorms reshape ecosystems, invasive weeds are crowding out native healing plants. So how do you protect centuries of healing wisdom when the land itself is changing?
28 Sept 2026
Reading the signs: How Pacific traditional knowledge is navigating environmental shifts
Long before weather apps and radars existed, nature was the Pacific's living weather forecast. Elders would observe signs — like the flowering of a seasonal tree or the flight path of a seabird — to understand when to plant, fish, or bunker down for severe weather.
But as climate change alters seasonal rhythms across the region, these long-standing indicators are being put to the test. So, can ancestral wisdom and modern science work together to help us decode what nature is now telling us?
Siosinamele Lui, Traditional Cultural Adviser at SPREP, explains how she interprets changing seabird behaviour in Samoa. John Ruben from the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department unpacks how his team is linking traditional knowledge with modern climate science. Plus, climate science specialist Mark Stege explores how historic aerial photography of the Marshall Islands affirms what local elders have always known about coastal flooding.
Listen to this episode of Culture Compass on ABC Radio Australia with host Afamasaga Seiuli Salamasina von Reiche.
Culture Compass was produced by Deadset Studios for ABC Radio Australia.
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