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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Kalolaine Fainu in Funafuti

Dancing, feasts and faith mark life on a vanishing island – Tuvalu photo essay

Children play in the sand mounds in Tuvalu
Children play in mounds of sand on a site where land is being reclaimed in Tuvalu. All photographs by Kalolaine Fainu Photograph: Kalolaine Fainu/The Guardian

As the sun sets in Tuvalu, children climb and play on mountains of sand that have been dredged from the seafloor. Women walk in the ocean shallows searching for shells that have travelled up with the sands, to make necklaces and other decorative pieces.

Little by little Tuvalu, a tiny atoll in the Pacific Ocean, is being swallowed up as the ocean rises from under the once solid ground. This is the reality facing its 12,000 inhabitants who live in the shadow of possible climate change extinction, mostly as a result of rising sea levels.

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