The Pacific island world is too complex for us to comprehend all its needs and problems fully, and to provide all the solutions. It is also too dynamic for any of us to assume that once problems and needs are identified and solutions provided that the solutions will last indefinitely. Neither culture nor sustainable development are steady-state phenomena. They both change, and new problems and new solutions call for continuous attention: the important thing is to understand the importance of both culture and sustainable development, as well as the relationship between the two.

There are many issues, problems and needs that we face. Gender issues, unemployment, institutions, the family and relatives, ethnic issues, hierarchical and status issues, equality, equitable distribution of income and resources, good governance, accountability, work ethics, values and social behaviour, technology, information, the media, drugs, law and order, religion, tourism, health, education, land tenure, ocean resources, regional cooperation are some of the major issues which we must address: these are the issues that challenge us in the Pacific islands as we move forward in our lives. In facing them I believe it is critical that the working inter-relationship between culture and sustainable development be understood and recognised.

In dealing with changes, the first step is to ‘know thyself’. The rest of the steps are filled with the culture of the global ocean in which each of us must choose the course to take. As an example, let us take the case of women, and women and development. There are different interpretations of the position, status and role of women in Pacific island societies. Nevertheless, I believe there is one issue that we must agree upon and that is the equality of each and every human being. The issue facing us then, is the interpretation of what equality means. When the Secretary-General of the Tonga Women’s Association came back from a conference on women in South Korea, one of her first comments was, ‘Why do western women insist that we should be like them? Why do they think that their ideas are God’s own and ours are backward?’ Equality in the gender issue has become almost synonymous with ‘same as men’. On the other hand, I was once heavily criticised by an officer in one of our regional organisations because in a report of a meeting which I chaired, ‘women’ was not listed as one of the major issues.

In considering culture and sustainable development, are we talking of equality as being ‘same as men’ or of ‘two human beings who are equal but not the same’? If it is the latter, the issue then is the equity of the complementary relationship between two beings who are equal but not the same. Either way, the cultural dimension looms large and affects both development and culture.