MEET OUR RELCAIM FELLOWS
Tevaearai Puarai
Tevaearai Puarai is Executive Director of Moruroa e Tātou and a Reclaim Community Fellow. Tevaearai shares why he is passionate about nuclear justice and what the Reclaim Fellowship has meant for him.
"IA ORA NA ! I am Māòhi : rooted in a people, a genealogy, a Reo (language) and a Fenua. The ocean surrounding our islands is not a boundary; it connects us to our ancestors, to other Pacific peoples and to future generations. My name is Tevaearaì a Puaraì (Araì), a Māòhi young leader from Maatea, on the island of Mooreà, in Māòhi Nui (French Polynesia occupied).
My commitment began on 2 July 2018, when I joined my first peaceful march commemorating the first French nuclear explosion in Māòhi Nui.
That day, standing among the crowd, I realised that I was not only participating in a commemoration: I was becoming part of a collective memory and inheriting the responsibility to listen to our elders, preserve their stories and continue their struggle.
Since 2023, I have served as Executive Director of Moruroa e Tātou. Founded in 2001 by former nuclear test-site workers, our organisation supports affected communities and families while carrying their voices and memories into local, national and international spaces.
My greatest hope for the TPNW in New York is that nuclear-affected peoples will not simply be present, but genuinely heard and included in the decisions that concern them. With humility, I will carry the voices of my people, affected by the 193 nuclear explosions imposed upon our homeland by the French colonial state. I also carry the responsibility of a younger generation that inherited their consequences and must continue the struggle for truth, justice, recognition and healing.
I look forward to listening to other affected communities and building lasting solidarity across generations and oceans. The Reclaim Community Fellowship has strengthened my understanding of nuclear colonialism and reminded me that lived experience is essential knowledge.
Above all, it has shown me that we are not alone. Its power lies in transforming isolation into solidarity, silence into voice, and our different experiences into a shared movement for nuclear Justice. Māuruuru."
The Reclaim Community Fellowship is a program of the Nuclear Truth Project running throughout 2026.
The Reclaim Community Fellowship program is a reciprocal-based learning and leadership initiative for emerging community leaders from regions impacted by nuclear weapons and related processes. The program addresses needs identified by affected communities engaged in the global disarmament and nuclear justice policy space.
Through education, networking and advocacy skill-building, the program will work intensively over the year with a cohort of six emerging affected community leaders from regions impacted by nuclear weapons testing and associated nuclear harms.